Police in St. Louis are confirming that a 12-year-old child was struck and killed by a bullet after a 10-year-old boy allegedly found a gun inside a home.
“St. Louis police Maj. Ryan Cousins said officers responded to a call for a shooting in the Walnut Park West neighborhood just after 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. A 12-year-old was fatally shot, Cousins said, and it appeared the boy and a 10-year-old family member had been playing with a gun they found when it went off, striking the 12-year-old. The shooting took place in the 5600 block of Summit Place, according to police. A small group of people gathered nearby in an emotionally tense scene after the shooting,” reports St Louis Today.
“You know, officers, a lot of them have kids of their own,” said St. Louis Police Maj. Ryan Cousins. “They’re even more sympathetic to a situation like this.”
“I’m just tired of going to children’s funerals,” added a local alderwoman. “I’m just tired. It drains you. Just pray for our city because we have to do something about these guns in our city.”
“Whenever you have kids over, that’s something that needs to be secured,” said the commander of the St. Louis police Bureau of Investigative Services. “We’re not telling anyone not to have weapons, but for these kids’ sake, we need those weapons secured.”
Read the full report here.