A 3-year-old boy apparently managed to take a handgun from his parent's purse and fired a shot that hit his pregnant mother and father inside an Albuquerque motel room in New Mexico, police said on Sunday.

Albuquerque police said the boy's father Justin Reynolds and his girlfriend --- the child's mother, Monique Villescas --- were getting ready to order pizza from their America's Best Value Inn room when they heard a gun fired.

Like Us on Facebook

Reynolds told a television station that he realized his girlfriend was bleeding after he heard the shot. He took a seat and discovered he was shot too. He called 911 and applied towels to Villescas to stop the bleeding.

He told police that he was worried about his girlfriend and his son because he did not know if he had shot himself too.

"It was traumatizing," Reynolds added.

Police said the bullet entered the father's rear, went through his hip and then hit the boy's mother in the shoulder.

Reynolds' two-year-old daughter, who was sitting next to her mother at the time, was unharmed. Both parents were rushed to a nearby hospital. The father has been released from hospital, but the eight-month pregnant mother was still being treated. The condition of her unborn baby is still unknown.

Albuquerque police said the two children would be in state custody for 48 hours. The case has been referred to state prosecutors who will determine if the parents should face charges of negligence for letting a loaded handgun be taken by a minor.

Police called local animal control officials to take away two pit bulls that were in the family's motel room.

The case resembles a shooting in December last year, when a two-year-old boy fatally shot his 29-year-old mother in an Idaho Walmart, after the toddler managed to pull out the gun from his mother's bag. 

Tagstoddler, pregnant mother, Accidental shooting, Albuquerque, New Mexico