4-year-old girl fatally shot inside a St. Louis house after children were left alone
Sep 3, 2024, 7:32 AM
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A 4-year-old girl died from a gunshot wound suffered inside a St. Louis home after the mother went to the store and left four kids alone, police said.
Officers were called to the home by a child late Monday night and found the wounded child unconscious and barely breathing. The 4-year-old was rushed in a police SUV to a hospital, where she died.
Four children — a 10-year-old, 9-year-old, the victim and her 4-year-old twin — were in the house with no adults present, police spokesperson Mitch McCoy said during a news conference on Tuesday. The child was accidentally shot by a sibling, McCoy said. Police have not released the age of the child who fired the gun.
“It is early in our investigation, but it appears that the mother left the children alone in the home while she went to the store,” McCoy said. The gun, he said, was apparently left in a place “easily accessible to a small child.”
No charges have been filed and McCoy said the investigation continues.
McCoy said the department and all of St. Louis is heartbroken by “this awful and avoidable tragedy.”
Across the St. Louis metropolitan area, 15 children age 17 or younger have died from gunfire in 2024, according to St. Louis Post-Dispatch records. The girl killed Monday was the youngest of this year’s victims, Tara Rick, executive director of operations for the St. Louis Medical Examiner’s Office, told the newspaper.
McCoy urged all gun owners to lock up their weapons — especially if a child is in the home.
“If you’re going to own a firearm, be responsible for it,” he said.
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This story has been corrected to show the victim was a girl, not a boy.
