An 8-year-old child died after inadvertently shooting himself with a loaded revolver left in the car while his mother was inside a Utah convenience store, according to authorities.
The youngster was alone in the car around 7:40 p.m. Monday in Lehi, Utah, about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City, when he shot himself in the head, according to Jeanteil Livingston of the Lehi City Police Department. According to authorities, the event occurred in a vehicle parked at a Maverick gas station.
The youngster was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. He was later transported to a northern hospital, where he died on Tuesday morning, according to police.
The shooting looked to be “unintentional and self-inflicted,” according to a police statement.
According to Livingston, the gun was found under a seat in the car. Investigators don’t know if the safety was ever turned on, she said.
Doug Shields claimed he was putting gas in his car when he heard a gunshot and then a woman screaming. He went to the car where the incident occurred. He informed KSL and KUTV that he overheard the mother claim the youngster discovered the gun beneath the seat.
Monday’s shooting came less than two weeks after a 5-year-old Utah kid died after accidentally shooting himself with a firearm at his home in Santaquin, some 65 miles south of Salt Lake City.
According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, there are no laws in Utah that sanction anybody for failing to secure an unsecured handgun and leaving it accessible to an unsupervised juvenile. The state also does not require unattended guns to be stored in a specific manner or that a locking device be sold with a firearm.
Livingston stated that no charges are currently filed against the mother of the Lehi boy. The shooting is still being investigated. Last week, Michigan police charged the parents of a 9-year-old with breaking the state’s safe storage legislation after their kid shot himself in the hand.
In St. Louis, a 4-year-old girl died Monday of a gunshot wound while in a house with three other children under the age of ten and no adults. Police are trying to figure out who was holding the gun at the time of the shooting.