A 2-year-old Florida boy died Wednesday after he got ahold of his father’s gun in a vehicle and shot himself, authorities say.
Police are investigating the shooting as an accident.
The child, Kaleb Ahles, shot himself in the chest. His mother, 23-year-old Christina Nigro, began performing CPR after she heard the loud popping noise, but the toddler was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital a short while later.
From NBC:
Kaleb Ahles was pronounced dead at a hospital after the 4:47 p.m. accident in Tarpon Springs, northwest of Tampa, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said. The office said the family was in the middle of moving from their home when the child, who was in the family car, found a .380-caliber handgun in the glove box and apparently pulled the trigger.
“It’s just one of those things that happens where everything lined up the wrong way where we had a 2½-year-old that was able to take a gun, pick it up, turn it around, and he shot himself dead center in the middle of the chest,” Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told NBC station WFLA. The station reported that witnesses said the boy was in the car alone before the accident.
Gualtieri does not believe the boy’s father will be charged in the shooting.
“I don’t think anybody can punish these parents any more than what they’ve been punished,” Gualtieri said.
“The evidence points to the fact that it was in the glove box, that it wasn’t anywhere else. That it wasn’t carelessness,” Gualtieri said. “Sometimes, bad things happen.”
Earlier this week, a 5-year-old boy accidentally shot his 9-month-old brother when he found a loaded gun in his grandfather’s home.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the toddler’s family during this difficult time.
SOURCE: NBC | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
