COLUMBIA, S.C. — A relative of a 4-year-old South Carolina girl who accidentally shot herself with her grandmother's handgun in a Sam's Club store said Tuesday the family expects the child to be out of the hospital by week's end.

Inease Williamson, the child's great-grandmother, said the little girl was recovering after undergoing emergency surgery a day earlier. "My great-granddaughter is doing much better," she said.

She declined to release the child's name, and police also have refused.

The child was riding in a shopping cart and playing with a cell phone, then grabbed the gun from her grandmother's purse and shot herself in the chest, Inease Williamson said.

Investigators planned to speak with the grandmother, Donna Hutto Williamson, on Thursday to decide whether criminal charges will be filed against her, said Columbia Police Department spokesman Brick Lewis.

Lewis said Tuesday the child's condition improved to stable condition following surgery Monday night, hours after she was hospitalized in critical condition.