On Friday, a 3-year-old boy fatally shot his 2-year-old brother by accident in Indiana after finding a gun inside his mother’s purse, according to local authorities.
Officers with the Gary Police Department were sent to a local hospital on Friday night after they were notified that a 2-year-old had suffered a gunshot wound.
The child’s mother spoke with officers, saying that her 3-year-old had found the firearm in her purse after she left it and her two sons in a bedroom.
The 2-year-old was quickly brought to the hospital after being shot, but he later died from his injury there, NBC News reported.
WLS-TV reported that the Lake County Prosecutor’s Homicide Task Force has started investigating the shooting.
“We do criminal investigations, and then we present that to the Lake County prosecutor, who makes a decision whether it’s negligence or an unfortunate accident,” Gary Police Commander Sam Roberts told WLS-TV.
Mayor Jerome A. Prince and Gary Police Chief Anthony Titus issued a joint statement on the shooting, pleading with adults to properly secure their firearms.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to the loved ones of the two-year-old child who was so tragically taken from our community,” Prince and Titus said in a joint statement.