A tale that is all too typical in the United States has emerged in a shooting case: a child finds a gun and inadvertently discharges it.
While playing with his father’s gun, a 3-year-old toddler in Dolton, Illinois accidentally killed his mother.
On Saturday, about 8:30 p.m., a shooting occurred. According to police, the gun was discovered while the kid and his family were sitting in their car outside a Food 4 Less store in the community approximately 20 miles south of Chicago. The father was behind the wheel, the mother in the passenger seat, and the boy in the back seat.
“He somehow got ahold of the gun and began playing with it in a playful manner, pointed the gun and fired the shot,” said Dolton police chief Robert Collins Jr.
Daejah Bennett, 22, was hit in the neck by a bullet and sent to the University of Chicago Medical Center. But she was pronounced dead.
The father of the 3-year-old is now facing misdemeanor gun charges, according to the police chief.
According to the Police Chief, Romell Watson, 23 was arrested after the incident. He will be charged with unauthorized use of a weapon.
The man will be processed for the charge, according to Collins, and will be released Monday evening.
“We do not have anything to indicate that the dad fired the weapon so the avenue we are pursuing is that the gun was his responsibility,” Collins said.
Collins said earlier this week that detectives were working with Cook County prosecutors to figure out what charges Watson might face. He claimed, however, that there was no evidence that he instructed the boy to fire the gun. He didn’t even see it at the time of the incident on Saturday.
Tragedy
Investigators have already found that the father lawfully owned the handgun. But he lacked the concealed carry permit he needed to transport it.
“He was legally entitled to own the gun, however, he transported the weapon in a vehicle in a manner not prescribed by law,” Collins said.
The child was subjected to a forensic investigation. The boy was interrogated by someone who specializes in speaking with children. “The child said he was the one who fired the gun,” he said. “We are confident he fired the gun.”
“This is just such a tragedy,” he said.
Everytown for Gun Safety is a leading gun-control advocacy group. According to its data, there were 142 deaths and 242 injuries from unintentional shootings by children under the age of 18 in 2020.
In 2021, the number of people killed grew to 154, while the number of people injured increased to 244. As per the organization, 16 people have died and 29 have been injured in these shootings so far this year.