Arrests Made In Shooting Incident At Moss Bluff Elementary School

Personal responsibility comes with gun ownership.  That fact was made abundantly clear today to two Calcasieu Parish residents.

On Monday, 7-year-old Gage Meche was accidentally shot with a gun brought to the school by another student.  The gun discharged when one child picked up the gun when it fell out of the other student's backpack.  The shot struck Meche who was rushed to Lafayette for emergency surgery.  He is now recovering in the hospital.

Investigator's discovered that the child who brought the gun to the school had taken it from the room he shares with his 17-year-old brother.  The gun was stored a mere 4 feet off the ground in a shoe organizer hanging from the wall.

The brother, Jake Dugas, has been charged with negligent injury.  The boys' father, 50-year-old Michael Dugas, has been with charged negligent injury and improper supervision of a minor.

Calcasieu Sheriff Tony Mancuso says that the father and brother are responsible for the shooting, not the boy.  Mancuso told the Louisiana Radio Network, "There was a gun safe just feet away in a closet, a fireproof gun safe that could have been used to secure this weapon. So it is our opinion that a crime was committed."