DETROIT – A 5-year-old child was shot with a gun that was found unsecured under a bed inside a Detroit home, police said.
The incident happened Thursday (Feb. 17) at a home on Rosemont Avenue.
UPDATE: Detroit grandmother charged after child finds gun in home, shoots 5-year-old brother, police say
Detroit police Chief James White said it’s unclear whether the child shot himself or was shot by another child who found the gun. He said what is clear is that gun owners need to be more responsible around children.
“The bottom line at this point is a child got ahold of a weapon, and we have yet another child in our city that has been shot by irresponsible gun ownership and the irresponsible actions of an adult,” White said.
He said the child was at home with a senior when the gun was found. That gun appears to belong to the child’s grandmother, who is a CPL holder, according to White.
The child was taken to a nearby hospital and is listed as stable, White said. The plan is to transport the child to another hospital for treatment.
You can watch the chief’s full briefing in the video posted at the top of the page.
“We’ve had too many,” White said. “At this point, we can’t tiptoe around this. There are no nice words to put on this. People have to be responsible with these guns. They have to care. They have to care about these babies.
“If you’re going to own a gun -- which everybody doesn’t need to -- but if you’ve got to own a gun, you’ve got to do so responsibly.”
White said police will handle this case as they have in the past, which could include holding the owner of the gun or the child’s parents responsible.
“We’ll get to the charging of the parents,” White said. “Certainly, charging them is something that we’ll look at.”
He said charging someone in the case is “most likely” to happen, but right now, what’s most important is the health of the child.
