Three-year-old Kills Self With Dropped Gun

In New Orleans, Louisiana, three-year-old Rudy Ratliff, fatally shot himself after he found a loaded gun that had fallen from the waistband of 47-year-old Tatisha Refuge. Rudy and his mother were visiting Refuge, who the boy’s mother saw as an adopted grandmother to her children. “She kind of raised me. Once I had kids, she looked at my kids as her grandkids.” 

Refuge has been charged with negligent homicide.

Source:

Maddie Kerth, “Woman Arrested After 3-year-old’s Accidental Shooting,” wafb.com (December 2, 2024).