By Erika Hernandez
Authorities reported that a 3-year-old boy who found a gun in his mother’s purse accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old brother at a home in Gary, Ind.
Officials of the gary police were sent to a local hospital Friday night for a 2-year-old gunshot victim.
The boy’s mother told officers that her 3-year-old son found the gun in her purse after she came out of a bedroom and accidentally shot his younger brother, who later died from his wound.
He Lake County Prosecutor’s Homicide Task Force is investigating the shooting, which occurred inside a home in the 2100 block of Georgia Street in Gary. Neighbors said they heard a loud bang shortly before 7:30 p.m. Friday.
“We do criminal investigations and then present them to the Lake County prosecutor, who makes a decision on whether it is negligence or an unfortunate accident,” said the Gary Police Commander Sam Robertsto ABC affiliate WLS-TV.
He Mayor Jerome A. Prince and the Gary Police Chief Anthony Titusemphasized that it is important for adults to take steps to properly protect firearms and other devices that could “become weapons in the hands of innocent children.”
“We have free gun locks available at our Gary Police Department, 555 Polk St., and we are ordering many more. “We will determine the best way to issue these free and potentially life-saving devices throughout our community,” Prince and Titus said in a joint statement.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to the loved ones of the two-year-old boy who was so tragically removed from our community,” they added.
Starting in July 2022, Indiana no longer requires a gun permit to legally carry, conceal or transport a handgun within the state. Anyone over 18 years of age who is not prohibited by state or federal law from possessing a firearm may, with some exceptions, do so.
In a similar incident last week in Ohio, a 2-year-old boy accidentally shot his mother’s gun at a Walmart store. Fortunately no one was injured.
Officers responded to the scene shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday. The woman said the 2-year-old boy pulled his 9mm Taurus handgun out of her purse and shot himself. The bullet hit the roof of the store and the boy was left with a minor wound on his forehead “due to contact with the magazine,” according to the Waverly Police Department.
The woman, whose name was not released, was arrested and charged in the Pike County Court of endangering children. While the minor was left in the care of a guardian.
So far this year, there have been at least 229 unintentional shootings by children in the US. These events have left a total of 81 dead and 156 injured, according to data analyzed by the advocacy group Everytown for Gun.
From 2018 to 2021, there was a nearly 42% increase in the rate of children killed by firearms, according to the analysis. While 2021, with more than 4,700 firearm-related child deaths, reflects a nearly 9% increase in the rate compared to 2020.
Keep reading:
- 5-year-old boy who fatally shot his 16-month-old brother in Indiana had cocaine in his blood
- Two-year-old boy fatally shot his pregnant mother in Ohio
- 7-year-old boy accidentally shot another minor in a Kentucky home