A 3-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after a horrific accident nearly killed him last last week in Detroit. According to police, the toddler shot himself in the head with a loaded gun he found inside the coat of a relative who was visiting. Remarkably, his injuries weren't fatal, and his condition has since been lowered from "critical" to "stable." But in the wake of the incident, officials in Wayne County have also charged a 30-year-old woman in connection with the crime and are once again reminding gun owners that safety precautions are crucial when carrying a firearm.
The accidental shooting happened at an apartment complex on January 14.
Inside one of the residences, the boy's mother welcomed a guest who also happened to be a family relative. According to reports, the friendly visit was meant to be brief, as the woman was simply stopping by to chat and pick up some food the boy's mother had prepared for her. But shortly after she entered, things took a scary turn.
As it turned out, the female relative was carrying a loaded pistol when she entered the home.
Detroit Chief of Police James White gave a chilling account of what happened next, sharing the situation during a press conference over the weekend.
"The relative takes her jacket off with the weapon inside and lays the jacket down," White explained, according to Click On Detroit. "[The women] both go into the other room, when they hear the gun go off and sadly, the baby is struck."
The accidental shooting happened at an apartment complex on January 14.
Inside one of the residences, the boy's mother welcomed a guest who also happened to be a family relative. According to reports, the friendly visit was meant to be brief, as the woman was simply stopping by to chat and pick up some food the boy's mother had prepared for her. But shortly after she entered, things took a scary turn.
As it turned out, the female relative was carrying a loaded pistol when she entered the home.
Detroit Chief of Police James White gave a chilling account of what happened next, sharing the situation during a press conference over the weekend.
"The relative takes her jacket off with the weapon inside and lays the jacket down," White explained, according to Click On Detroit. "[The women] both go into the other room, when they hear the gun go off and sadly, the baby is struck."
Although it remains unclear how Smith is related to the boy and his mother, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy seemed to have no doubt that she bears responsibility for what happened last week.
Worthy announced the charges against Smith on January 16, which include careless, reckless, or negligent use of a firearm, according to a news release. Smith was arraigned Monday in a Wayne County courtroom.
It's worth noting that Smith did have a concealed pistol license at the time of the shooting, but her alleged mistake was in leaving the gun unlocked, loaded, and easily accessible.
Sadly, Detroit has seen a wave of similar gun incidents in recent weeks.
On January 7, a mother called 911 claiming that her 4-year-old was shot during a robbery gone wrong. But during a police investigation, it quickly became clear that something else had gone down.
The police chief said "the puzzle isn’t coming together the way it should," which raised suspicion. After further interviews with the mother, it soon became clear why when the unidentified woman confessed to accidentally shooting her child twice while cleaning her gun.
In another incident, on December 15, a 2-year-old was grazed by a bullet after finding a gun inside an open duffel bag and pulling the trigger. In that case, the boy shot himself in the leg and needed surgery but ultimately survived.
"The only saving grace is that the baby is alive," White said at the time, according to Fox 2 Detroit.
For local authorities, situations like these are becoming all too common.
Following the January 14 shooting, it became clear that law enforcement is growing weary and frustrated.
"It is getting very difficult to come up with new ways to say the same thing over and over again," Worthy said in the news release. "If you own a gun and you know young children will be in your orbit, secure it so that there will be no access."
White echoed those sentiments in his own statement, while stressing that all of these incidents could have been avoided.
"This is a shared responsibility,” the police chief declared. “If you’re going to carry a gun, there are rules to carrying a gun. So another one of Detroit’s children are shot unnecessarily by getting ahold of a weapon, and sadly we find ourselves where we are once again today.
“The family is devastated,” White added. “[The shooting] certainly wasn’t intentional, but again we have to be responsible with these weapons."
Sadly, this issue isn't unique to Detroit.
According to Nationwide Children's, about 1,300 kids are killed in accidental shootings each year in the US. Many more are seriously injured — sometimes for life.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has said that the best way to prevent gun-related injuries to children is simply to remove guns from homes altogether. And if they are in the home, they should always be stored unloaded and locked, with the ammunition locked in a separate location where kids can't access it.
An estimated 300 million guns are believed to be in the US, according to Nationwide Children's. As to how safely they are stored, however, that's something only gun owners truly know — and often, the lesson is learned far too late.
