UPDATED: 2:45 p.m.
Police officers from the city's 8th District responded to a call from Jefferson-Torresdale Hospital about a 4-year-old girl who had been transported there with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Chief Inspector Scott Small said Tuesday morning that family members rushed the girl to the hospital around midnight, and she was pronounced dead a short time later.
Police say the girl was shot inside a private home on Secane Drive, off Dunks Ferry Road, in the city's Parkwood Manor neighborhood. At the time, the girl’s parents — and two other adults, a man and a woman — were in the house.
Sources say a 2-year-old boy was also inside the house at the time of the shooting.
Small said the girl's family was with her at the hospital Tuesday morning.
“A family member did transport the 4-year-old to the hospital," Small said. "I don’t know if they were all involved in the transport or if they showed up afterward. But we have all of the family members at the hospital."
Police found a .357 revolver, loaded with five live rounds and one spent cartridge casing, in the living room.
Small said when officers went to the home Tuesday morning, they found a trail of blood from the front door to the front walkway.
Law enforcement sources say officers also found drugs. The girl’s father, who has a drug conviction from Bucks County, is expected to be charged with weapons offenses. Officials say he illegally had a gun inside the home.
Investigators say it is "extremely unlikely" that the girl shot herself, but no one has been charged.
Authorities are continuing to question the four adults.
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