A 4-year-old girl was killed by her brother who was handling a gun while their mother was away at the time of the shooting Monday in St. Louis, Missouri.
Police were called shortly before midnight to a child who had been shot by her brother, whose age has not been disclosed, at a residence and rushed the victim to a hospital, where she died of her injuries, ABC News reported Tuesday.
The local police explained that the victim was at the time of the incident with her twin sister and her two brothers aged 9 and 10 in the residence, when one of the two boys was handling the weapon, firing the shot to hit the little girl, whose mother had gone shopping.
“Our investigation is early, but it appears the mother left the children home alone while she went to the store,” police spokesman Mitch McCoy said, adding that the gun was in a location “easily accessible to a small child.”
In the St. Louis metropolitan area, at least 15 children under the age of 17 have been killed by firearms, according to a tally by the local newspaper, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, which quotes the executive director of operations for the St. Louis medical examiner’s office.
