‘The animals were not secured other than being in containers and accessible to anyone who occupied the residence,’ the Blount County Sheriff’s Office said.

Saman Shafiq

A 4-year-old boy accidentally shot himself at his family’s home, which had at least 30 snakes and a crocodile inside of it, prompting his parents’ arrests, authorities said.

The 39-year-old mother and 27-year-old father face multiple charges, including first-degree assault, cruelty to animals and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the Blount County Sheriff’s Office’s jail records.

The injured child had surgery and is recovering at a local hospital. Both he and his sibling have been placed into protective custody with the Alabama Department of Human Resources, the sheriff’s office said.

The parents were arrested Monday after authorities learned of a critically injured child being brought to a local hospital last Friday with gunshot wounds to his leg and arm, the Blount County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. The sheriff’s office added that the child “was taken to the hospital by the parents who did not contact law enforcement.”

Hospital staff members told investigators that the mother was overheard telling the child “something that sounded like, ‘That’s what you get for playing with guns.'” The child suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and arm from what’s believed to be a single round from a 9mm handgun, the sheriff’s office said, adding that a belt was “wrapped around the arm acting as a tourniquet.”

Authorities find drugs, reptiles at child’s home

When searching the child’s family’s home in Oneonta’s Sugarland Lake community, police not only found “multiple unsecured firearms, drug paraphernalia and suspected marijuana,” but they also stumbled upon 24 live snakes, multiple dead snakes “covered in maggots” and a “juvenile caiman, alligator or crocodile of unknown specific species.”

“The animals were not secured other than being in containers and accessible to anyone who occupied the residence,” the sheriff’s office said.

The animals are being investigated by wildlife authorities, according to the sheriff’s office. The residence also had no running water and no operational bathroom facilities, the department added.

Child’s parents arrested, charged

The parents were arrested Monday and charged with reckless assault, chemical endangerment to a child for exposing them to drugs, cruelty to animals and failure to bury or burn livestock, the sheriff’s office said. Additionally, the reptiles were subjected to cruel treatment and being kept in unsanitary conditions, the department added.

“We’ve charged them with as much as we can,” Blount County Sheriff Mark Moon said during a news conference on Tuesday, per WIAT. “Ideally, we would like for them to go away for a long time and never be able to have children ever again. That would be a perfect scenario.”

USA TODAY contacted Alabama courts but has not received a response. As of Wednesday, it is unclear if the child’s parents have legal representation. A Blount County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, meanwhile, said on Thursday that he did not have information on when the two would be presented before a district judge.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.