COLUMBUS, Ind. – Police say a 12-year-old central Indiana boy hit a bullet cartridge with a hammer, firing a bullet that grazed a teenage girl.

Columbus police Sgt. Matt Harris said the boy was playing with the live ammunition when he hit the cartridge on a sidewalk. Harris told The Republic (http://bit.ly/LJK8vk) that the blow ignited the primer and gunpowder.

Harris said the girl told officers she was walking with friends Wednesday night when she heard the boy tell two other boys riding bicycles nearby to “watch this.” She then felt something hit her neck.

The boy’s mother told police she didn’t know how he obtained the bullets, because the family doesn’t keep guns in their home. The boy was taken to a juvenile detention center on a criminal recklessness charge.