Father tells 6-year-old with 3 years of gun training to lie after shooting sister in face

A Wisconsin man is facing charges for allegedly telling his 6-year-old son, who had at least 3 years of firearms training, to lie after shooting his 4-year-old sister in the face with a shotgun.

In late August, WKBT reported that Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a home in the Town of Alma, where the 4-year-old girl had been struck in the side of the head with a shotgun blast.

According to the Jackson Country Chronicle, authorities in Jackson said this week that 48-year-old father Fred B. Maphis had told his son to say that the shotgun had accidentally gone off when he dropped it. But the son later admitted that the father instructed him to lie because he had pointed the gun at the girl and pulled the trigger.

The boy told authorities that his sister had asked him to aim the shotgun at her, but he had made the mistake of putting it too close to her ear.

A sheriff's office complaint said that the mother told investigators that the boy had been training with firearms since the age of 3. She said that he had his own .22 caliber rifle, but he was only allowed to shoot with adult supervision. The father insisted that he had just forgotten to unload and secure the shotgun.

Maphis was scheduled to be in court on Sept. 23 to face misdemeanor charges of leaving a loaded firearm near a child and obstructing an officer.

Initial reports said that the girl's injuries were not life threatening.

Watch the video below from WKBT, broadcast Sept. 17, 2013.

[Photo credit: Boy holding a gun via Shutterstock]