A Chicago man was slapped with weapons charges after a gun hidden between two mattresses fired and injured a 4-year-old girl who was jumping on the bed.
Jarquise Upton, 21, was charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, ammunition possession and theft of mislaid property after the Saturday morning incident, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Upton, the boyfriend of the girl's mother, allegedly told cops that he kept the gun for "protection from my girl's baby daddy, who messes with me."
The girl was in stable condition at the hospital on Sunday, Fox News reported. She had apparently been jumping on the couple's bed at about 12:20 a.m. when the gun -- a 22-calibre Smith & Wesson automatic pistol -- discharged a bullet into her ankle, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The gun had a 6-inch barrel and nine live rounds in the magazine, cops said. Upton reportedly relayed the incident to relatives, who turned him in.
When cops asked him if he knew that the gun was registered as stolen, he said that he found it in a gangway. He allegedly said that he'd kept it hidden in the yard until March 19, when he put it between the mattresses on his bed for fear of the girl's "baby daddy."
Upton is expected to appear in court today, the Chicago Sun-Times said.