CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) – A 3-year-old boy was sitting in a car with his parents Saturday in the Food-4-Less parking lot in Dolton when he got a hold of a gun in the back seat.
“He accidentally discharged that weapon, hitting the mother in the back,” said Dolton Trustee Andrew Holmes, who is a crisis responder and was there when the 22-year-old woman was pulled from the car.
“She was hit pretty bad,” said Holmes. “She had maybe some relatives or her friends that were trying to give her CPR, trying to keep her breathing, but she was hit too bad and she succumbed to her injuries.”
Holmes told WBBM Newsradio the tragic death could have been prevented if the gun were locked up.
“[People] leave guns in the car, under the seat or in the pouch in the back, and they won't take it in the house for a certain amount of reasons,” he said. “But when they come out in the morning, the kids are getting in the backseat and they forget that they have that gun up under the seat or in the back. Then that child gets ahold of that gun and discharges it while they’re driving.”
Last month, Holmes gave away 400 gun locks in partnership with the Black Fire Brigade.
He returned to the supermarket parking lot on Sunday to give away another 300.
“Customers were coming in and going out, I stopped them, handed them a lock, explained to them what happened and they said, ‘You know what, we've been hearing about this.’ So they thanked me for distributing those locks,” Holmes said.
It’s unclear whether any charges will be filed against the father, who was also in the car at the time of the shooting.
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