10-year-old boy shot in rural Manitoba
A 10-year-old boy from Winnipeg was shot in the leg during a walk in a rural area in southern Manitoba on Thursday evening.
Robert Desjardins was shot shortly after 7 p.m. as he walked with a cousin on a trail near Middlebro, Man., about 155 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg, said his mom, Jessica Desjardins.
The Desjardins were in the small community visiting relatives.
"They saw … a black truck … saw the door open, heard a pop and that was it," she said. "Robert felt like he had been hit by a rock."
The two were on a trail leading to Road 2 N. in the rural municipality of Piney when they heard a shot and the boy felt pain in his left leg, RCMP said.
Robert was taken to the Steinbach, Man., hospital and then moved to the Children's Hospital at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg where he had surgery.
RCMP went to the hospital to gather evidence and examine what they referred to as a "bullet/pellet," which is still in Robert's leg, his mom said.
"They don't really want to remove it right now because they say that going in and digging around for all the pieces could just cause more damage," Desjardins said. "They're monitoring … right now, to see if there's any kind of infection."
Investigators are following up on leads based on the information Robert and his cousin provided, RCMP said. No arrest had been made as of Sunday evening.
The shot missed the bone and there's no nerve damage, so it could have been worse, Jessica Desjardins said.
She's been using humour to help her son cope.
"Everything will change," she told him on Sunday as he sat in a wheelchair outside the hospital. "With the scar, you'll be picking up ladies when you're older."
