Authorities say the 4-year-old Florida boy was waiting to go out to pizza in his parents' car and fatally shot him in the head while playing with a handgun he found in his parents' car.
The selected Morris died the day after accidentally pulling the trigger of a Smith & Wesson M&P .40 caliber gun belonging to his father, who remained under the driver's seat, Davenport police said at a press conference Monday.
While the family was preparing to go out, Tot's mother, Quinta, heard “pop” she thought was because her children had broken something, police chief Steve Parker said. I said.
When the 32-year-old confronted her two older children in another room (an 11-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son), they told her there was no loud noise coming from her. She then began searching for the youngest and found him in the front seat of a car in the garage, suffering from a gunshot wound.
The nursing student's mother provided assistance to the child as the family rushed him to a hospital about two miles away.
He was declared dead on Saturday afternoon, Parker said during a briefing. Streamed by Fox 13 Tampa.
The boy's parents said they were planning to buy him a present after dinner, Parker said.
“We believe that our choice was excited to go out that night and got in the car to wait for the rest of our family. It's visibly choked.
“I can't stress enough how tragic this is. I met my family early today, they're devastated and they're ravaged about what happened.”
Robert, the father of the child, told officers he uses weapons for personal protection when he travels back and forth from work.
When he got home Thursday, he had forgotten his gun and he remained in the car on Friday because he had no work that day, police said.
Parker said he doesn't want to seek criminal charges against his parents, but he needs to discuss them with the prosecutor.
“I can't even imagine what they're going through,” the police chief said of his family.
