Man accused of shooting kids with airsoft gun

A Sargeant man has been charged with shooting his two children, ages 9 and 11, with an airsoft pellet gun.

According to the complaint, A Mower County sheriff’s deputy met with a Dodge County sheriff’s deputy on Jan. 6 to retrieve a report documenting child abuse involving a pellet gun.

On Jan. 20, a detective spoke on the phone with the defendant, who would not commit to a time or place to meet with the detective, and asked if his ex-wife reported the alleged incident. He said that he shot one child in the stomach and the other in the chest because he was teaching them that “guns should not be pointed at people.” Records show he claimed his children wanted to know how it felt to be shot.

Both children said it hurt. The defendant, age 40, told officers he shot with hard plastic pellets, which travel at 220 to 325 feet per second, and said they “can put somebody’s eye out easily.”

He told the detective that “sometimes the only way you learn is through the school of hard knocks,” and claimed his father did the same thing to him.

The defendant turned over two airsoft guns to the Law Enforcement Center in Austin.

He is charged with two counts of felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon; two counts gross misdemeanor malicious punishment of a child; and two counts of misdemeanor domestic assault.

The defendant, who has not been named to protect the identities of the children, has been summoned to appear in Mower County District Court on March 9. Both victims are residents of Dodge County.