FLORENCE COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A South Carolina man has been charged after 3-year-old twins were shot on Saturday after finding an unsecured gun at a home on Rockwood Lane, according to deputies.
Daquan Travezz Butler, 28, is charged with two counts of unlawful conduct toward a child. He was booked in the Florence County Detention Center after his arrest on Saturday and released on bonds totaling $10,000, according to online jail records.
Deputies began investigating Saturday afternoon after getting a call from a hospital that the children had been brought in to the emergency room with gunshot wounds.
Investigators determined that it happened while the children were left unsupervised at a home in the 1300 block of Rockwood Lane.
“One of the victims located an unsecured firearm and discharged the firearm resulting in an injury to that juvenile as well as the other,” Sheriff TJ Joye’s office said in a news release. “One child was shot in the foot and the other in the thigh.”
According to the sheriff’s office, Butler, who had custody of the children, was taking the children to the hospital after the incident but was involved in a crash. Butler and the children then drove to the hospital by a passerby who stopped to help.
The investigation is continuing and more charges are possible, the sheriff’s office said.
“The right to keep and bear arms is enshrined by our Constitution,” Joye said in the release. “But with that right comes the responsibility to keep firearms out of the hands of children or others not authorized to possess them. Parents, please make sure your firearms are secured to prevent incidents like this from happening.”
