Lamar county 3-year-old shot, suspect behind bars

LAMAR COUNTY, MS. - A man in Lamar county is arrested and charged with aggravated assault after shooting a 3-year-old child in the leg.

Lamar County Sheriff Danny Rigel says the Hattiesburg Police Department arrested Robert Jason Teall, 33, on unrelated charges Thursday. Authorities say Teall was wanted for one count of aggravated assault.

"We went to Forrest County and gave him a warrant and charged him with aggravated assault" says Sheriff Rigel. The shooting occurred on the 100 block of North Windridge Wednesday.

The mother of the child was inside the apartment in another room when she heard the child scream.

Rigel says the 3-year-old was in the living room watching television."The child screamed and fell to the ground. His mother ran to him and found what appeared to be a huge laceration on his leg."

The mother took her child to Merit Health Wesley where he received seven stitches. "They treated it as a laceration." The child is not facing any life-threatening injuries according to Rigel.

"When the mother and child returned she saw a bullet hole in her front door" says Rigel. The mother immediately contacted the Lamar County Sheriff's Department.

"We sent investigators to the scene and reconstructed the shooting, and determined that it came from across the street." According to Rigel witnesses saw Teall shoot the gun from inside the apartment.

The bullet came out of Teall's apartment through the victim's door which hit him in the leg and lodged into the family's refrigerator. Sheriff Rigel says the department recovered the weapon used in the shooting.

Teall was also charged with possession of a controlled substance with the Hattiesburg Police Department.