Detroit toddler, 18 months old accidentally shoots 5 year old cousin dead upon coming across weapon and playing with it. Child’s father arrested.
Here we go again. An 18-month-old child accidentally shot and killed his 5-year-old cousin after finding a loaded gun in a Michigan home Wednesday, police said.
Officers responded to a home in Detroit on a call that a child had been shot after 9:30 a.m. the Detroit Free Press reported.
When officers arrived, they found a 5-year-old boy was shot in the neck, WXYZ-TV reported.
The boy was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
‘It’s a sad day in the city today,’ Police Commander Tiffany Stewart said at a press conference. ‘We lost another child in the city of Detroit due to a lack of firearm safety. This was completely avoidable.’
‘We lost another child in the city of Detroit due to a lack of firearm safety,’
‘It was reported that an 18-month-old got a hold of a gun in the home that was accessible … grabbed it … started playing with and accidentally shot the 5-year-old,’ Stewart said. ‘I’m not sure the 18-month-old is even aware of what occurred.’
Cops say the 18-month-old boy found the firearm in the home and proceeded to play with the weapon before accidentally striking his cousin.
The father of the victim, the boys’ grandmother and another child, a one year old, were in the home at the time of the shooting, police said.
Police arrested the father, who is believed to be the gun owner. Commander Stewart called the boy’s death ‘completely avoidable.’
‘We lost another child in the city of Detroit due to a lack of firearm safety,’ she added.
‘This is why we emphasize gun safety with gun locks and gun boxes so we don’t have circumstances like this. It has been far too many of these kinds of circumstances in the city of Detroit.’
No charges were filed pending an investigation.
The accidental shooting is one of many recent incidents which has involved innocent children fatally shooting themselves or other children unwittingly.