DETROIT (WXYZ) — A man is in custody after a child died from a gunshot over the weekend. Detroit police say it's the result of a weapon being left unsecured.
It happened on Ward Avenue near Midland Street on Saturday night. That's on the city's west side.
A neighbor 7 Action News talked to, who didn't want to be identified, said he heard the mother's unmistakable screams and made that call to 911 after finding her holding the boy on the porch.
"He had blood coming from his — it was going down his face. And they say that he had shot hisself," the neighbor recalled.
He said he performed CPR. Sadly, the boy was pronounced dead at the hospital.
"We don't know exactly what transpired once the weapon was found. We're confident that it was an unsecured weapon that led to this tragedy," Detroit Police Department Chief James White told news media Monday afternoon.
To be clear, investigators are not yet saying the child shot himself. That's still being determined as part of their investigation.
"The investigation is wide open. We've got an adult that's responsible for the weapon in custody. We don't know exactly where that's going to go just yet," the chief explained.
The neighbor said the boyfriend of the child's mother is who police arrested.
"He should have never left the gun down there, but he didn't have the right to have one in his possession being a felon," the neighbor said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention states, "Firearms are now the leading cause of death for U.S. Children and teens under the age of 18."
The AAP also said kids are safer when firearms are stored in a lockbox or safe and are unloaded. The organization said kids are safest when guns are stored outside the home.
"It's just sad the little boy lost his life. He's 8 years old. He had a whole lifetime to develop to be anything he wanted to be, and he's gone and this happens too often. I've seen it happen," the neighbor said.
White said, "We're always here talking about this. If you're going to have a gun, if you're going to be a gun owner, you have to be responsible and unfortunately, we have yet another situation where one of Detroit's children been killed because an adult made a horrible decision to leave the gun unsecured."
