Carthage man pleads guilty in child’s shooting of dog

(AP) A 27-year-old Carthage man has plead guilty to a reduced charge in a case involving a 5-year-old shooting a dog with a handgun.

Daniel Byrd was originally charged with felony child endangerment but that was changed to a misdemeanor. Byrd was given a suspended one-year prison sentence and will be on unsupervised probation for two years.

Carthage police were called on May 29 after the boy shot a pet dog with a handgun he found on a bedside table in Byrd’s bedroom. His bedroom was next to the children’s bedroom and had a door knob that couldn’t be fully latched.

Fortunately the dog survived the shooting.