BATON ROUGE - A mother was arrested after her four-year-old got a hold of a gun and shot himself Wednesday morning.

Police arrested Arieana Scott, 22, after her son gained access to an illegal modified handgun, where he sustained a self-inflicted wound and is currently in critical condition at a local hospital.

Scott was booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison for improper supervision of a minor by a parent, possession of a firearm by a person convicted of certain felonies, possession with intent to distribute schedule one drugs, possession of a firearm in the presence of a controlled dangerous substance, and possession of a machine gun.

"Our officers were the first on scene. Found the child in the bed. Immediately started rendering medical aid to the best of their ability until EMS was able to get here and transport the child," said Baton Rouge Police Chief 'TJ' Morse.

The four-year-old boy was apparently playing with the gun in a bed when it went off, shooting him in the face. The child's mother was at home when it happened.

"Mother was in a separate room, heard the gunshot, and went and found the four-year-old with the gunshot wound."

An infant who was also inside at the time was not injured. WBRZ was told DCFS has been alerted.

Not only was the gun unsecured, it was illegally altered.

"I can tell you that it was a handgun. It was an illegal handgun with a conversion switch attached to it which would make it an automatic weapon."

Glock switches are cheap and easily obtainable. They can turn an ordinary handgun into a machine gun, firing dozens of bullets. They were made illegal in the state last year.

Police said charges for the child's parents are likely.

"It's definitely something we're looking into in regards to the illegal weapon and as well as maybe some kind of negligent homicide charges depending on what they are able to discover in their interviews."

Morse says not only is this a tragic situation for the family—he worries about the effects witnessing a scene like this has on his officers.

"What most of the community does not understand is that these officers are first on scene dealing with a four-year-old with critical injuries, rendering first aid to this four-year-old and I don't know if you just saw the police car leave, but now they're going to answer other calls, going to help other people in the public, so I wanted to get up here and check on them and make sure that we are very mindful of that."