Toddler fatally shot after finding gun in teen sibling's room, police say
ARLINGTON (CBSNewsTexas) - A toddler shot and killed himself early Tuesday morning in Arlington with a gun police say he may have found in the bedroom of a teenage brother.
Arlington police said they received a 911 call from a neighbor, who heard the shot fired at a house in the 5300 block of Pocassett Dr. about 12:30 a.m. The boy's mother also called, telling the dispatcher that her son was bleeding.
Police and paramedics arrived to find the boy had a gunshot wound to his face. They took him to Medical City Arlington where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office identified the boy as Rio Carrington. He would have turned three-years-old in less than two weeks.
Police said they were still investigating who the gun belonged to and how the boy was able to get ahold of it.
The shooting came less than a week after a two-year-old girl shot herself in the chest in Fort Worth. In that case police said the girl's mother told them her daughter may have found the gun in an unlocked drawer.
The death this morning would be at least the sixth child death this year from a gunshot in Tarrant County, according to data available from the county medical examiner's office.
From 2018 through 2022, Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth has treated 225 juvenile patients for gunshot wounds, and 22 children who have died.
Police in Arlington stressed the death Tuesday may have been prevented if the gun was in a safe, or had a lock on it, which are available for free at the city's police department.
"Please lock your handguns up," said Courtney White, with Arlington Police. "They can get into the wrong hands, or they can get into a child's hands. And something this serious and unfortunate can happen to them. And now this mom is going to have to bury her young child."
