A teenage babysitter in Texas was arrested after a toddler under her care fatally shot himself with a gun on the coffee table.
19-year-old Melissa Ann Ringhardt of Vidor was charged Tuesday in the death of a 5-year-old, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, who spoke with CBS affiliate KFDM. Ringhardt was staying with the Read family, and had been tasked with watching the young boy, known as John, and his 6-month-old sibling. Ringhardt, who was nervous to stay at home alone and kept a semiautomatic .40-caliber handgun for protection, lay down for a nap around 2:45 p.m. While she was sleeping, the older brother grabbed the gun off of the coffee table. When Ringhardt awoke, she couldn't immediately find the boy until she spied his body crumpled on the living room floor.
Ringhardt did not have cellphone availability, and there was no landline in the house, so she was forced to carry the 5-year-old to his grandparents' home a block away.
The 6-month-old was unharmed.
The 19-year-old has been charged with abandoning or endangering a child, and is currently being held in police custody on a pending bond. If convicted, Ringhardt could receive a jail sentence of up to two years.
Sheriff's Chief Deputy Clint Hodgkinson told KFDM that the family has a safe in which they keep their guns, but Ringhardt held the firearm with her during the day.
"People have the right to bear arms and with that, comes great responsibility," Hodgkinson said. "If someone, somehow, puts a firearm in a place where a child is able to get that weapon, you've committed an offense."
Hodgkinson added that Ringhardt seemed "calm" after she was escorted to the Orange County jail.
"I don't know if it's a state of shock or what - she's got this solemn state to her," he told the local news station. "She just seems really calm right now."
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