The 2-year-old has died from his gunshot wounds.Photo:Getty
Getty
As her 2-year-old lay dead in a hospital room, police allege an Indiana mother told authorities that her 3-year-old son had found a gun in her purse and accidentallyfatally shothis toddler brother in what police are investigating as a child shooting with an unsecured firearm.
No charges have been filed at this time, Commander Samuel Roberts of the Gary Police Department tells PEOPLE in an interview.
The names of the mother and her minor children have not been released.
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At the Gary hospital, the mother told officers that her 3-year-old son happened upon the gun she kept in her purse after she left him in a bedroom and walked out, Roberts alleges.
The Indiana State Police have published bulletedfirearm safety information, which reminds gun owners to keep their “unloaded” gun safely secured “separate from the ammunition.”
In aFacebook postrelaying the ongoing police investigation and in a subsequent emailed press release to PEOPLE, the Gary Police Department emphasized the importance of gun owners securing their firearms “in a gun box or with a gun lock.”
“A gun in a purse – that is not in a holster – is very reckless,” Roberts tells PEOPLE. “Because anything in the purse might strike the trigger.” The police commander adds that guns can be safely carried in a purse if “the purse has a holster built-in, which some do.”
The Gun Violence Archivehasso far tallied1,399 accidental shootings this year– with at least three more since the Gary incident Friday in Savannah, N.Y., San Antonio, TX and Chicago, Ill.
For more information on safe firearm storage and the most effective ways to protect children from unsecured firearms, visitBeSMARTforkids.org.
source: people.com
