YOUNGSTOWN — The shooting of a boy, 11, in a home in the 700 block of Parkview Avenue on Friday night involved a gun the boy said he found last summer in the backyard of the home where he lives.

The boy suffered injuries that were not life-threatening to his leg in the 9:13 p.m. incident, police said.

Police were called to the home for a shooting. An officer performed first aid on the boy, applying a tourniquet to the boy’s thigh above what appeared to be a gunshot wound, police said.

The boy initially told police he was sitting on his bed playing video games and felt a sting in his leg. The boy’s mother said she was in the shower when she heard a pop. She said she asked the boy what made the noise and got no reply. She then opened the bathroom door and saw the boy in the hallway bleeding from his thigh, then called 911.

Upon further investigation, the boy admitted that he had found the gun in the backyard of the home shortly after moving into the house last summer. He said it looked like a pellet gun. He said he hid it in a small couch in the living room.

He said while his mother was in the shower, he was playing with the gun and it fired. On the bed was a pillow with a bullet hole in it and scorch marks.

The boy said he threw the gun out the window into the snow. Officers looked for the gun but did not find it.

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