4-year-old shoots himself — deputies find snakes, crocodile in ‘unkept' home
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ONEOTA, Ala. (WJW) — Two parents were taken into custody earlier this month after a 4-year-old boy shot himself in Alabama, leading to an investigation that revealed a home full of snakes and a crocodile.
The Blount County Sheriff's Office was called by a local hospital the morning of April 4 for a report a child was shot, Sheriff Mark Moon said in a press conference last week.
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Once at the hospital, a deputy was told the little boy was wounded in the arm and the leg and had been brought in by his parents. He reportedly had a belt around his arm serving as a tourniquet.
A charge nurse reportedly told the deputy they heard the child's mother saying: 'See, this is what happens when you play with guns.'
When asked what took place, the child told authorities, 'I got shot by a gun.'
The child was eventually taken to Children's of Alabama and is stable after having surgery. He is expected to make a full recovery and has been taken into state custody, Moon said in the press conference.
Following the shooting, the sheriff's office got a warrant to search the parents' home, which Moon described as 'unkept' and 'nasty' and without a working bathroom.
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Authorities reportedly found multiple firearms and drug paraphernalia inside the home. They also found multiple animals, including several snakes of the 'constrictor' variety and mice and rats believed to be used as food for the snakes, according to Moon.
Deputies reported that several of the snakes were deceased and covered in maggots. These were found in the same tank as the live snakes. The deputies also found what was labeled as a crocodile living in a large aquarium in the bathroom.
Following the search, animals were removed from the property and the parents Cassandra Lutz, 39, and Alexander Corrie, 27, were taken into custody, Moon said.
Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey told TV station WSFA that the pair was charged with reckless assault, child chemical endangerment, cruelty to animals and failure to properly bury livestock.
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