A 52-year-old man killed himself after his firearm went off accidentally and injured his son.
The police identified the deceased as Mathew K.P., a native of Ayyampuzha near Angamaly. The incident occurred around 9 a.m. when Mathew was cleaning a double-barrel gun inside his bedroom. His 20-year old son, identified as Manu Mathew, was watching television in the hall just outside. “Manu and his father were sitting face to face in the two rooms when the gun discharged accidentally and the youth sustained an injury on his scalp,” officials said.
Hearing the gunshot, neighbours rushed to the house and shifted Manu to a hospital. Though his injury was later declared not serious, Mathew thought the gunshot caused a fatal injury and shot himself on his head after locking the bedroom.
Mathew, who worked as a security guard at the office of a financial institution in Aluva, possessed a licence to carry the firearm. The incident happened soon after Rosely, Mathew’s wife, reached home after attending the Sunday mass at a nearby church.
Hospital sources said Manu sustained an eight-centimetre-long and one-centimetre-deep wound. He is out of danger. Mathew is survived by his wife, son, and a daughter.
A case has been registered on charges of careless handling of gun and unnatural death.
