PACE — Charges have been filed against a man after a 6-year-old girl in his care was shot in the face by another minor with an unattended firearm.
Mitchell Tracey Bass, 26, was arrested Tuesday and charged with crimes against a person for allowing a child access to a firearm and a misdemeanor weapons offense for unsafe storage of a weapon.
Bass was at his home at Bell Ridge Apartments on April 28 where two children were playing, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office.
Bass told investigators he had just given the children dinner and then went outside where his wife was talking with a friend, according to his arrest report.
Bass said he only had spoken briefly to his wife when he heard a shot and ran inside to find the girl had been shot in the face with a Kahr Arms CW 45 handgun, his arrest report said.
Bass told deputies “It was my fault. Just shoot me now,” the report said.
Bass said later he left the gun on the couch and was unsure if it was in its case, the report said. During an interview with the children, it was determined that the gun had been left loaded on a towel on the couch.
The little girl was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. A nurse at the hospital said she had a gunshot wound that entered through her right cheek and exited through the right side of her neck.
She was treated and later released.
Bass was taken to the county jail on $6,000 bond.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Angel McCurdy at 850-315-4432 or amccurdy@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @AngelMnwfdn.