By A four-year-old boy has shot himself to death with his father’s gun while his mother was smoking weed in the car.
After finding his father’s gun in the backseat of a car, the four-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the head.
The deceased, Jarion Walker, was sitting in the back seat with his two younger siblings, aged 22 months and one year.
The tragedy struck on Saturday, Jan 29, around 10:45 p.m in the city of Westwego, near New Orleans, USA.
Authorities said the deceased mother was in the front seat smoking weed with another adult when the boy picked up the gun.
Jarion was rushed to the hospital and later succumbed to his injuries.
The other children in the car with him, a 1-year-old and 22-month-old, had no injuries.
Coroner Gerry Cvitanovich described the wound as “a contact wound to the forehead, right above the right eyebrow.”
“The gun, which belongs to the child’s father, who was not there at the time of the shooting, was left under a seat,” NBC News detailed with insight from the sheriff, adding that “the mother and her friend did not know the weapon was there.”
Although no arrests have been made, detectives have confirmed that an investigation will be conducted.
“I don’t think it was appropriate to make an arrest at this point,” Mr Lopinto said.
“They just lost a child, and it wasn’t on purpose in the least.”
Lopinto also shared the adults involved admitted to using marijuana at the time of the tragic incident, although no weed was recovered from the vehicle.
According to the sheriff, the two have remained cooperative throughout the ongoing investigation.
“These types of deaths can certainly be prevented,” Lopinto said at a news conference.
“I don’t think it was appropriate to make an arrest on this at this point,” he added.
“They’ve just lost a child. It certainly wasn’t intentional by any means.”
“We shouldn’t ever leave a gun inside of a vehicle for numerous different reasons,” Lopinto said, “This one being the most tragic reason.”
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