A three-year-old shot his brother with a gun found in his mother’s handbag in the United States. Milan / stock.adobe.com
The child found the gun in his mother’s purse and accidentally shot his brother. The drama took place in a town in the state of Indiana.
A two-year-old child killed by his three-year-old brother. The drama unfolded Friday evening in Gary, an American city in the northwest of the state of Indiana. A three-year-old boy found a gun in his mother’s purse and accidentally shot his brother, fatally wounding him, reports The Associated Press. The two-year-old child, taken to hospital, died from his injuries.
The Lake County Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation to clarify the circumstances of the fatal accident. “We conduct criminal investigations and then we present them to the Lake County District Attorney, who decides whether it was negligence or an unfortunate accident,” Gary Police Commander Sam Roberts told US TV WLS-TV.
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Gary Mayor Jerome A. Prince and Police Chief Anthony Titus called on adults to take action to prevent weapons from ending up “in the hands of innocent children”. They therefore recommended the use of locked safes to secure firearms. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the loved ones of the two-year-old who was so tragically taken from our community,” the mayor and police chief said in a joint statement.
Since June 2022, it is no longer mandatory to have a license to own a handgun in Indiana. Except for exceptions provided for in the law, any person aged 18 or over can possess a weapon. Children are particularly victims of firearms in the United States: 4,752 died in 2021 according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published last September. An increase of almost 42% compared to 2018. Firearms are therefore the main cause of death among children and adolescents under 19 in the States, ahead of road accidents.