RELATED POST:
[CA] [MO] Within 3 days two preschool sons of law enforcement officers shoot and kill themselves.
(See that post's comment section.)
RAYVILLE 3-YEAR-OLD KILLS COUSIN WITH GUN OF HIS FATHER, A POLICE OFFICER
By The Associated Press, NOLA.com
December 31, 2009, 8:32PM
The Richland Parish sheriff says an off-duty police officer's 3-year-old son apparently shot and killed a 3-year-old cousin with his father's gun. Sheriff Charles McDonald says the children, a boy and girl, were playing together Thursday when the Rayville police officer went to get something out of his car. He says the gun was in the driver's side door. The sheriff says the boy picked up the gun and accidentally shot the girl. McDonald says she died instantly. He did not release the officer's or the children's names. [LINK]
[police officer involved domestic violence oidv abuse law enforcement public safety fatality fatalities child children girl boy son daughter murder accident accidental gun lock toddler preschooler gun culture, louisiana]
These sad events - when there is a death - becomes more than a personal tragedy. It's a social tragedy. Pulling them together warns of the danger and has the potential to make a difference in the future for another child.
ReplyDeletePosting just the facts here is nowhere as brutal as what I have seen in the comments after some of the online articles - that are judgmental and blaming.
When my daughter was a baby there was a mother who came on tv to talk about the accidental drowning of her toddler daughter in a neighbor's pool. It was painful for her and she cried through it, but she changed my awareness and what I watched for. There is no telling how many lives she may have saved by telling what happened to her daughter. One? Two? Five? We learn from each other. No one is perfect, we all make mistakes, and we try to not make the same mistakes that we already know about and have given serious thought to.