NEWTON, N.J. (CN) - Operators of the Wild West City theme park gave a child actor a loaded gun for a shootout skit, and he shot a boy in the audience in the head, paralyzing him and injuring his brain, the boy and his mother claim in Sussex County Court.
Scott and Betty Harris say Scott was shot in the head with a .22 caliber bullet fired from a pistol that the defendants negligently provided a 17-year-old actor. Scott was wounded in the shoot-out skit on July 7, 2006, and will need "special needs care" for the rest of his life, the complaint states.
Defendants include Cheyenne Corp., which operates Western World, and five of its owners or employees. The teen-age actor who allegedly shot Scott Harris is identified only by his initials. The complaint claims that another Western World brought the live ammunition to the theme park.
The Harrises are represented by Andrew Fraser with Laddey, Clark & Ryan of Sparta, N.J.
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