An off-duty police officer in Texas accidentally shot his son, thinking he was an intruder, on Saturday evening.
Police responded to a shooting at a DeSoto, Texas, home at around 6 p.m. The caller identified himself as a Dallas police officer.
Police say the son was transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The circumstances of the shooting remain under investigation, and no arrests have been made. Authorities did not release the identity of the officer and his son.
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No further information regarding the shooting has been made public.
This incident comes in the wake of several other similar shootings.
On Oct. 1, a man was accidentally shot dead by his father-in-law in Florida when he arrived from Norway as a surprise.
Christopher Bergan, 37, hid behind the bushes in his father-in-law’s backyard, planning to jump out and surprise him. Thinking he was an intruder, Bergan’s father-in-law shot him, killing him instantly.
Sheriff Bob Johnson of the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement about the incident, saying that prior to Bergan’s surprise, his father-in-law had been startled by a neighbour reportedly banging on his front door.
Last September, former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger fatally shot Botham Jean while off duty after mistaking him for an intruder when she accidentally entered his apartment a floor above her own.
Guyger has since been sentenced to 10 years in prison, a ruling that took a jury less than six hours to reach.
During the trial, the basic facts of the shooting were not up for debate. Guyger entered Jean’s apartment one September night thinking it was her own. She told court she was returning home from a long shift and, when she found the door ajar, thought she was being burglarized. She walked into the apartment and shot Jean while he ate a bowl of ice cream.
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The case sparked widespread attention, with racial tensions at its core. It was one in a string of shootings of unarmed black men by white police officers and went on to spur protests in Dallas and beyond.
During the trial, Guyger sobbed as she expressed remorse.
“I’m so sorry … I have to live with that every single day that I hurt,” she said, trailing off.
“No police officer would ever want to hurt an innocent person.”
— With files from Associated Press and Rachael D’Amore
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