Don’t doubt the writer is an idiot but you can shoot slugs from a shotgun.
True. But a slug ain’t a bullet and one does not “spray” an area with slugs...unless he had a serious semi-auto shotgun, which is doubtful. If it were slugs he fired, there’s a good chance he’d have never hit the kid. But, all supposition. Including the supposition that the writer could use some schooling in ordnance terminology.