A young boy was killed by another child while the two were playing at a home in Jacksonville, Florida.
According to the preliminary investigation, a six-year-old boy was shot dead by his 9-year-old playmate after the pair got their hands on an unsecured firearm at a home in the Duclay neighborhood.
After the boy was shot in the head, he was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
As of this writing, the authorities confirmed that an adult was present in the home at the time of the shooting. The adult, however, does not yet face any charges over the boy’s death.
“Initial investigation determined the two juveniles were located inside of the residence in the care of an adult,” Assistant Chief J.D. Stronko said.
“One of the juveniles was able to obtain a firearm and fired a single shot striking the victim. There is no indication of criminal violence.”
Meanwhile, neighbors of the family in question spoke out and revealed they weren’t sure who occupied the home because the tenants have changed several times over recent years.
“It’s terrible, terrible. It breaks my heart,” one resident from the same block said. “I always tell my kids and teach them not to touch my gun.”
This year alone, a total of four children were killed in accidental shootings in Florida alone.
As a Nationwide Children’s Hospital representative insisted, parents who own guns should do more to prevent their children from accessing their firearms.
“If your child is going to visit a friend’s house or a relative’s house go ahead and ask: ‘Are there firearms in the home? And if there are, how are they stored?’” principal investigator Nichole Michaels said.
“Normalizing it so that parents are asking about firearms, the same way that they ask about allergies in the home or pets in the home, you know, just making those conversations really normal, can go a long way toward, you know, opening up these discussions and preventing these tragedies from happening.”
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