A Texas toddler died after finding a loaded gun in his teenage brother’s bedroom and shooting himself in the head shortly after midnight on Tuesday morning.
Police believe Rio Carrington, 2, was alone in his brother’s bedroom, KXAS reported, but several other children and the boy’s mother were in other parts of the house.
“A child is dead and a mother is going to have to bury her baby because the child found a gun and injured herself,” Arlington Police Sgt. Courtney White.
Investigators have not yet revealed the type of caliber of the weapon used and are still working to determine if the weapon was obtained legally, according to KDFW. They also did not say if any other weapons were found in the house and did not reveal the age of the teenager who allegedly possessed the weapon. They confirmed that he was underage.
“Just a bad overall situation, for lack of a better term,” White said. “That’s why we’re enforcing and trying to tell the public please lock up your handguns, they can get into the wrong hands or they can get into the hands of a child.”
Police said there were three other children in the home, along with the adults, WFAA reported.
Cook Children’s Health System told the station they had seen 247 gunshot wounds since 2018, 22 of which were fatal. Last year, according to the hospital, there were 45 such injuries, eight of them fatal.
No charges have been filed in this case.
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[Featured image: Rio Carrington/Facebook]
Origin of message: online crime