FORKS — A .40-caliber bullet that Forks police fired early Sunday at a man they said charged them instead broke a 5-year-old boy’s bedroom window about a block away and landed near the child’s toy box.
Eden Cisneros had arrived home minutes before with his father, José, when the bullet pierced double-pane glass, perforated Venetian blinds, struck the wall of the boy’s closet and dropped to the floor beside his toy box, said his mother, Gladys Cisneros.
Forks Police Chief Mike Powell confirmed that the round had been fired by one of two officers.
Powell said the officers fired when John F. Young advanced on them while holding a 3-foot samurai sword and what proved to be a pellet gun that closely resembled a semiautomatic pistol.
Powell said he could not disclose how many rounds the officers fired until the State Patrol completes its investigation of the shooting.
Four of the bullets hit or grazed Young.
The Cisneros home at 591 Spruce Drive was directly in the line of fire, but it was hidden from the officers’ view by trees, Powell said.
Gladys Cisneros said Eden and his father had been helping a relative prepare for a first Communion. The boy changed his clothes in the closet about 15 minutes before the shooting occurred at about 1 a.m.
Had Eden remained in the closet, the bullet would have missed his head by 2 inches, his mother said.