Child Death (18 and Under) Child Under 18 (as Shooter) Missouri Ongoing Investigation July 15, 2020July 18, 2020 by Gary Klein

WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2020

A local new story in St. Louis begins, “[a]nother child has been killed by a gun, this time a 6-year-old … St. Louis Police are not releasing much information.” It is at least the tenth death of a child in or around St. Louis since the beginning of the year.

According to the report, a caller told police that the boy had shot himself. “When Police arrived, the child was already dead.”

Source:

Maria Keena, “6-year-old Boy Shot, Killed in St. Louis,” KMOX NewRadio 1120 (July 15, 2020).

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TUESDAY, JULY 13, 2021

According to Maple Heights, Ohio police, 5-year old Princeton Patterson found a loaded gun in his home and shot himself in the head. They found him dead at the scene.

There is an open question about whether an adult will be charged for failing to properly secure the gun. A local law professor says state law and how it’s interpreted varies not only by state, but by county. He suggests, “There are some prosecutors that will say, ‘I don’t need to charge the parents in this case, they are going to beat themselves up and punish themselves much more harshly than I ever could.’ Other prosecutors will look at it and say, ‘We do need to prosecute these cases to teach other parents to be responsible for what it is that they are doing.”

““I just know that he was a cool little kid. He’d come over here and play and talk to us,” says a neighbor. “Really, my little brothers’ best friend so they’d go over there and play with him. So, they were crying and hurting last night.”

Source:

Kaylee Remington, “5-year-old Boy in Maple Heights Dies of Self-inflicted Gunshot Wound,” cleveland.com (July 14, 2021).

Will Ujek, “5-year-old Boy Dies from Gunshot Wound in Maple Heights,” wkyc.com (July 14, 2021).