Indianapolis police say that a 2-year-old boy was fatally shot Wednesday evening when he got his hands a gun from his mother's purse on the kitchen counter and accidentally shot himself when he was left unattended.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department say that the officers arrived on the scene around 9:15 p.m. to find the child unresponsive with a single gunshot wound to the shoulder.
The mother had stepped away momentarily when the boy climbed to a kitchen counter, removed the pistol and shot himself at about 9 p.m. at northwest side home in the 5200 block of Alameda Road, near 52nd Street and West Kessler Boulevard, according to a police statement.
Authorities arrived 15 minutes later where firefighters tried to revive the child, but they were not successful. He was then rushed to Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health in critical condition and later pronounced dead.
"The grieving mother is cooperating with detectives," the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said in a news release Thursday, "and after detectives questioned her she was later released."
The mother, who has a valid gun permit for the .380 Bersa semi-automatic pistol that was used in the shooting, and child were the only people home at the time of the incident, police said.
Even if the parent(s) has a valid gun permit, their children are a different story, and when left alone with a firearm, disaster is usually not too far behind. For example, back in January, a 7-year-old boy was shot and killed after his 8-year-old brother took their mother's gun out of her purse. He tried to remove the magazine, but it discharged instead, striking his brother in the head. While this played out, the mother was inside a nearby Verizon store paying some bills.
It's incidents like this that have prompted the IMPD to urge gun owners to secure their weapons whenever children are nearby. They suggest keeping guns unloaded, locked and out of reach of their children. In addition, they suggest storing the ammunition and guns in separate locations, as well as keeping the keys for gun locks and ammunition safes separate from the house keys and, once again, keeping them out of reach of their children.
