DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The mother of a 4-year-old boy who shot himself after finding an unsecured firearm in her vehicle in Des Moines has been sentenced to a year of probation.
Polk County court records say 28-year-old Rachel Rowe also was fined $315 and given a deferred judgment. Under a deferred judgment, her conviction can be removed from her record if she were to successfully complete the terms of her probation. She’d pleaded guilty to allowing a child access to a loaded gun.
Rowe’s attorney told The Des Moines Register on Friday that she and her husband thought the gun was in a child-safe holster. It wasn’t. The boy found the .45-caliber handgun May 29 inside another container in her vehicle and shot himself in his upper arm.
