A Pennsylvania man allegedly tried to cover up the fact that one of his young sons had shot the other — and refused to get the injured child medical treatment.
Mark Anthony Dunlap, 35, is charged with child endangerment for the October incident, which was only discovered after the injured boy’s wound bled through his clothing while he was at school.
“The charge stems from an investigation initiated by LRPD several days prior after receiving information from doctors at Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, PA about a child treated for a gunshot wound,” the Lycoming Regional Police Department said of Dunlap’s arrest. “It was learned that Dunlap’s 11-year-old child had been accidentally shot by another child at Dunlap’s Pleasant Valley Rd. home in Hepburn Township in mid October by a handgun owned by Dunlap.”
The 11-year-old is identified in an arrest warrant affidavit only as “M.D.” According to the affidavit, M.D. had been shot by his 7-year-old brother, identified in the document as “W.K.,” on Oct. 14.
According to the affidavit, the boys’ mother, Cheyanne Kunzman, didn’t learn about the shooting until Nov. 5, after the boys had returned from their father’s home.
“The 11-year-old boy advised his mother that he had a secret but didn’t want his father, Mark Dunlap Sr. to found out he told,” the affidavit said.
Pleasant Valley Road, Cogan Station, Penn. (via Google Maps). Inset: Mark Anthony Dunlap (via Lycoming Regional Police Department).
The boy told his mother that on Oct. 14, “while at his father’s house, his brother W.K. had shot him in the buttocks with the father’s .45 caliber handgun,” the affidavit says.
At that point, Kunzman took the boy to the hospital, where a CT scan revealed that “fragments of the bullet remained inside the child,” and a doctor confirmed to Kunzman that her son had been shot.
Kunzman was advised that “the bullet had entered the child’s upper right thigh/lower buttocks and exited the child’s left buttock,” the affidavit said.
At the time of the shooting, the boy had apparently asked Dunlap to be taken to the hospital, but “the father told him that he would be taken away if he goes to the hospital.”
The bullet wound wasn’t discovered until after M.D. returned to school, where “his wound had bled through his bandage and shorts.”
After that, he went to see the school nurse.
“It was discovered that the school contacted Mark Dunlap Sr. and Dunlap told school nurse that his son had fallen on rocks,” the affidavit says. “Mark Dunlap then kept the children from returning to the mother’s and advised her that they were ill.”
After he returned to his mother’s home, the injured 11-year-old told Kunzman that he didn’t want Dunlap to find out that he told her about the shooting, according to the affidavit.
Dunlap is not currently in custody. His next court date is scheduled for Dec. 6.
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