SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — Two children found a loaded handgun near a playground at the Redbank Community Center on Sunday morning.
“We found the gun and thought it was a toy gun,” said Gianna Smith, who found the gun. “But it was actually real and then she threw it and got our grandmother.”
Police said the gun the girls found was a Taurus revolver. It was loaded with four bullets, had no safety, and had recently been fired.
“It was already pulled and it was full of bullets so I kind of panicked,” Gianna’s mother, Tawnya Carlo, said. “It could take a second for a kid to pull a trigger.”
The girls said they had just left the playground when they spotted it near a construction area.
“I’ve never seen a gun in person before,” Smith said. “I didn’t really want to though. I don’t really like guns — they scare me.”
The girls said the gun wasn’t very well hidden. It was lying on the ground between a wooden pallet and a storage container.
“Now I don’t really feel comfortable going in here,” Smith said. “Now that I know that people carry guns all around and they drop them places.”
South Portland police said they don’t believe the gun is stolen and they are trying to see if the weapon is connected to any recent crimes. They also praised the girl’s actions.
“They said that if you ever find one just run and go tell our parents not pick it up and do stuff with it,” Smith said.