Tragedy in the United States: an 8-year-old boy kills a baby while playing with his father’s gun

While playing with his father’s gun, an eight-year-old boy killed a baby and injured a girl this weekend in Floridaa sadly common tragedy in USA.

The father, Roderick Randall45, was arrested and charged with culpable negligence, illegal possession of firearms and concealment of evidence, said Chip Simmons, sheriff of Escambia, a county in northwest Florida.

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The drama occurred in a motel where the man, who had a heavy criminal record, had met his girlfriend. He had gone with her son, she with her two-year-old twins and her one-year-old baby.

In a moment, he went absent, leaving his gun “in a closet”the bailiff said during a news conference. Knowing where the gun was hidden, “his son grabbed it and started playing with it.”

Roderick Randall, 45, was arrested.

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“He shot the one-year-old baby and killed her. After going through it, the bullet hit one of the twins, but she is expected to recover,” the sheriff continued, noting that the mother of the victims was asleep while this was happening.

When the man returned, he removed the gun and some substances, likely drugs, from the bedroom before police arrived.

This death is part of a staggering series of similar gun accidents.

“Each year, hundreds of children in USA they gain access to loaded guns unlocked in closets and nightstand drawers, in backpacks and purses, or simply left lying around,” according to a recent report by the NGO Everytown For Gun Safety.

“With tragic regularity, children find these guns unlocked and inadvertently shoot themselves or someone else.”he added.

The organization, which campaigns for better oversight of firearms, estimates that these “unintentional shootings” by minors cause an average of 350 deaths each year.

More generally, firearms cause an estimated 40,000 deaths a year in the United States, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

Source: Elcomercio