“4-Year-Old Boy Accidentally Shoots Himself at Home with Snakes: Police Report”

Left to right: Alexander Corrie, Cassandra Lutz (Blount County Sheriff’s Office).

An Alabama couple, a mother and father, have been taken into custody after their 4-year-old son unintentionally shot himself at their residence. The home was reportedly filled with snakes and even a young crocodile.

Following the incident, the boy’s mother, Cassandra Lynn Lutz, 39 years old, denied responsibility for the shooting while she was at the hospital.

Sheriff Mark Moon of Blount County shared with the media during a press conference that while at the hospital, the mother, Cassandra Lynn Lutz, was heard shouting at her son, blaming him for the shooting by saying things like, ‘this is what happens when you play with guns.’

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Deputies responded to the hospital the morning of April 4 after the boy showed up to the hospital with a gunshot wound to his arm and leg. When asked what happened, the boy responded to deputies: “I got shot by a gun.”

Cops obtained a search warrant for the home where they found several “interesting pieces of evidence,” Moon said. In addition to marijuana and drug paraphernalia, detectives say they located several unsecured firearms along with around 30 snakes — six of which were dead — and a juvenile crocodile.

The snakes were kept in aquariums inside the home. The live snakes and dead snakes were kept inside of the same enclosures, Moon stated. The crocodile was swimming inside a tank located inside a bathroom, according to Moon. It is illegal to have a crocodile inside a home, Moon said. Fish and wildlife officials took custody of the snakes and crocodile.

Lutz and the boy’s father, 27-year-old Alexander Corrie, are facing a slew of charges including first-degree assault, animal cruelty and possession of a prohibited animal.