Wednesday, June 29, 2022 | 12:33 p.m.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Rhode Island resident previously convicted of bank robbery pleaded guilty Wednesday to being in possession of a gun that a juvenile used to accidentally shoot himself in the knee, federal prosecutors said.
Branden Eddie Smith, 37, was prohibited by law from having the gun because he was convicted of bank robbery in Nevada in 2017, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Rhode Island.
Emergency responders went to Smith's Warwick home in March several hours after a juvenile discharged the firearm, resulting in a self-inflicted wound to his knee.
The juvenile told police he was handling what he believed to be an unloaded firearm, but when he pulled the trigger, it discharged sending a bullet through his knee, prosecutors said.
Police executing a court-authorized search of the residence found a Glock 42 semiautomatic pistol and eight rounds of ammunition inside a safe in Smith's bedroom, prosecutors said.
Sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 29.
