Toddler hit by stray bullet, left ‘bleeding from face’ while playing outside at Utah nursery

A man shooting birds in suburban Utah with a .22-caliber air rifle is a person of interest for injuring a toddler in the head outside a daycare center this week, authorities said Wednesday.

The two-year-old is recovering at a Salt Lake City hospital.

The man is cooperating with investigators and will not be named unless prosecutors decide to press charges against him, Spain’s Fork Police Department said.

Anyway, authorities have already said they believe the shooting was an accident.

“We do not believe this was a targeted incident,” Lieutenant Cory Slaymaker said KSL TV in the immediate aftermath. “We feel like this was more of an accident, and the person who probably did it doesn’t even know they did it.”

Police confirmed there were no apparent malicious intent in a press release.

“Detectives continue to investigate where the bullet may have come from and why,” Spain’s Fork police said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It appears this was a tragic accident. Open fields are immediately west of the nursery and the bullet is believed to have come from that area.”

The boy was playing outside at Leap Ahead Daycare’s Spanish Fork facility, about 53 miles south of Salt Lake City, when employees spotted him tripping Monday afternoon and bleeding from his head.

“At first we thought he had tripped and hit his head,” says Lane Mugleston, who co-owns the nursery with his wife.

Although no one heard any shots fired, the suspected air gun left a hole in the vinyl fence surrounding the nursery’s outdoor playground, suggesting it came from fields across the street, Mugleston said Tuesday.

Employees called the child’s parents who took him to the hospital.

“The doctors are monitoring him and they said his vitals are fine and he is making a full recovery,” Mugleston added. “So they think that’s a blessing.”

Lane Mugleston, the owner of Leap Ahead Daycare, points out a bullet hole as he speaks to reporters on Tuesday

Lane Mugleston (pictured), who co-owns the daycare with his wife, initially thought the shooting victim had tripped and fallen

A farm field across the street west of the Leap Ahead Daycare facility

Doctors found what appeared to be a bullet in the child’s head and took him to a larger hospital in Salt Lake City.

Mugleston noted that due to the nursery’s location near an airport, it is often difficult to hear things.

He said he was still in a state of disbelief about the episode and had notified all of the nursery’s clients.

“I still feel like I’m in shock,” he said. “We are absolutely surprised. We are stunned that this would happen in Spanish Fork.”