And 3 year old boy has died at his home in Florida (USA) after accidentally shooting himself in the face with a gun from his parents and that he had found in the parents’ room. As reported by the Volusia County authorities, where the events occurred, the agents went last Wednesday to a house in the city of DeLand after receiving “one of the worst calls imaginable”.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood explained at a press conference that it was the boy’s sister, 16 years oldwho alerted the authorities by assuring that his 3-year-old brother had shot himself and was not breathing.
The parents had left his teenage daughter in the care of his other two siblingstwo children aged 7 and 3, while shopping in a supermarket.
At one point, the 3-year-old entered his parents’ bedroom and pulled out a 9mm pistol from the nightstand drawer, and accidentally shot himself. The sheriff has pointed out that the trigger of a pistol of these characteristics needs only two kilos of pressure to be able to pull it easily.
According to Chitwood, the presence of a firearm in the house is due to father’s profession, correctional officer from the state of Florida, who normally kept his guns in a bedroom safe. However, the safe’s electronic locking feature had stopped working, so they decided to place the guns on top of the kitchen fridge and on his nightstand.
So far this year, in the US there have been at least 20 unintentional shootings by childrenwith 9 deaths and 12 injuries, according to data from the Everytown for Gun Safety association, collected by the American media CBS.
After what happened, Chitwood has stated that the case will be fully investigated and will be filed with the State’s Attorney’s office for review. “To all parents who have weapons: if you have young children, even teenagers, you should keep them locked up because you don’t know what can happen,” she warned.