DETROIT (WXYZ) — A 4-year-old boy was hospitalized in temporary serious condition after he was shot by his older brother in Detroit Thursday, police said.
It happened around 2:40 p.m. in the area of Larchmont and Ironwood streets on the city's west side.
Police said a 9-year-old boy picked up an unsecured gun to play with it and shot his 4-year-old brother in the cheek. The bullet then went through the 4-year-old’s shoulder.
Detroit police say the gun is their older brother's who lives in the home. The gun was in that brother’s bedroom unsecured, police said.
The 9-year-old reportedly told an officer that his older “brother showed him the gun before.”
Their 11-year-old sister was also in the house.
No parents or guardians were home at the time, police said.
Police said the gun is registered to someone in Southfield who is on probation and should have not had possession of it.
“Four-year-old — we’re talking about a baby,” Assistant Police Chief Charles Fitzgerald said. “You can heal from these kind of scars, but you got the mental wounds as well that not only the older brother — when I say older, he’s just a child, he’s a little boy himself, pulling the trigger shooting his brother — and then the wounds that the brother is going to have.”
This incident comes just over a week after the shooting of an 8-year-old boy on Snowden Street and Easton Avenue in Detroit. The father in that incident was taken into custody and is facing child abuse charges.
Fitzgerald reiterated the several previous messages Police Chief James White had about unsecured weapons and safe gun storage.
“Gunlocks, gunlocks, gunlocks. We give them out at every precinct. We will bring them to you,” Fitzgerald said. “We have to secure these weapons. Being a parent, it’s a huge, huge responsibility.”
One neighbor 7 Action News spoke with Thursday says she is a mother and gun owner. She added that she has gun locks and teaches her kids about gun safety.
“I think they should know what it is and what it can do… kids are curious," she said.
Two people were arrested and taken into custody for having warrants after Thursday's incident. Police are investigating their roles in the incident.
“Again, it’s senselessness,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s an incredibly strong little boy…”
