BLOUNT COUNTY, Ala. (WIAT) — The Blount County Sheriff’s Office held a press conference Tuesday afternoon after two parents were charged in relation to their son suffering gunshot wounds.
According to the BCSO, deputies arrived at UAB St. Vincent’s Blount on Friday on a report of a 4-year-old boy who was shot in his leg and arm. His parents, who didn’t contact law enforcement, took him to the hospital.
“When I got the call from my chief deputy that morning telling me that we had a 4-year-old child in the hospital with a gunshot wound, I literally almost threw up because when you think about, even without knowing the details of the case, I began to think ‘Who would cause this kind of pain to a child?’” said Blount County Sheriff Mark Moon. “It brought back memories of active shooter events in schools and in elementaries. Why would someone go in and harm these innocent children?”
The boy was airlifted to Children’s of Alabama, where he had surgery and is in stable condition, according to Moon. The sheriff said the boy shot himself with a handgun.
The BCSO stated the boy’s parents are Cassandra Lutz and Andrew Corrie. Corrie was charged with aggravated assault, child endangerment, second-degree unlawful possession of marijuana, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, 10 counts of cruelty to animals and six counts of failure to bury livestock.
Lutz was charged with aggravated assault, chemical endangerment, second-degree unlawful possession of marijuana, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, 10 counts of cruelty to animals and six counts of failure to bury livestock.
“We’ve charged them with as much as we can,” Moon said. “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.”
The sheriff’s office obtained a search warrant for the residence the boy lived in, which is in the 500 block of Holliday Drive. Moon said the residence had no running water and no operational bathrooms. The Blount County Department of Human Resources was notified. The younger male sibling and the victim were removed from the residence and put into protective custody.
“To be able to go in and pull these children out of this extremely unsafe, unfit environment and prayerfully and hopefully have them placed in a home that will love them and put them in a place of protection and provision, that means the world to every single person that works in this department,” Moon said.
Unsecured firearms, drug paraphernalia and “suspected marijuana” were reportedly found in the residence. The BCSO announced it discovered the residence had 24 live snakes, six dead snakes and a juvenile crocodile.
Those animals were found in containers accessible to anyone inside the residence. The Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division took possession of the animals. The Blount County Animal Control took control of the dogs and cats at the residence.
“It was sickening to even think about anybody living in these types of conditions,” Moon said. “But when you start thinking about children who can’t do anything outside of what their parents provide, they had no choice and probably, really, if you think about it, if it hadn’t have been for this, would’ve never had any hope of escaping this kind of lifestyle.”
Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey said whenever she thinks she’s heard or seen it all in her 18 years prosecuting, she is given a case that shocks her, much like this one.
“It just breaks my heart to know that they could have been potentially in a situation where severe danger, I mean extreme, extreme injury, could have occurred,” Casey said. “And obviously in this case, there was a gunshot wound as a result of their behavior.”
The investigation is ongoing. The BCSO said the the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources could bring forth more charges. The DA’s office plans to present the case before a grand jury.
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