A five-year-old boy has been shot and killed by his 18-month-old cousin who was playing with a loaded gun.
The toddler is believed to have found the gun laying around at his uncle’s house in Detroit, Michigan, before picking it up and firing a single bullet, police have said.
The accident at around 9.30 am local time yesterday and the five-year-old’s father, aged 27-year-old, was detained by police in connection with the incident.
The boys’ father, grandmother, and another child, a one-year-old, were all inside the property when the shooting happened.
Detroit Police Department commander Tiffany Steward has said the boy’s death was ‘completely avoidable’ and those investigations are ongoing.
Stewart said: ‘It’s a sad day in the city today. We lost another child in the city of Detroit due to a lack of firearm safety.
“This was completely avoidable.”
Police received a call reporting that a child had been shot by another child at around 9.30 am yesterday morning and when cops arrived they found the five-year-old with a gunshot wound to the neck, police said.
The boy was taken to a nearby hospital but he sadly died upon arrival.
Stewart added that police recovered a 9mm Glock gun inside the house and added that police are investigating whether the gun was ‘laying around’.
She said: ‘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 it and accidentally shot the 5-year-old.
“We detained the father for additional questioning regards to the circumstances, to make a determination as to whether or not this is what occurred. ‘I’m not sure the 18-month-old is not even aware of what occurred.
“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.”
