A three-year-old girl has died after being shot by her five-year-old sister, who was reportedly playing with their father’s pistol at their family home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The incident happened when the children’s parents were awakened by the sound of a gunshot. They rushed to their daughter’s room and found the younger child seriously injured.
According to The Sun, the older girl told her parents that she had been playing with the pistol when it suddenly went off, striking her younger sister.
The firearm belonged to their father, who was reportedly authorised to own guns as a collector, sports shooter and hunter.
The parents immediately rushed the injured child to Rocha Faria Municipal Hospital, where she was admitted in cardiorespiratory arrest.
Despite doctors’ efforts to save her, the three-year-old succumbed to her injuries on Sunday morning. Local military police later confirmed her death at the hospital.
Brazil’s Capital Homicide Division has launched an investigation into the incident, including a forensic examination of the family home.
Authorities have yet to establish where the pistol was stored, whether safety measures had been put in place or how the five-year-old managed to access it.
Due to her young age, the five-year-old cannot face criminal prosecution.
The tragedy occurred just a day after another teenager was fatally shot during an alleged game involving a firearm elsewhere in Brazil.
In that incident, 15-year-old Daniel Antunes da Rocha was reportedly struck in the head after a 16-year-old allegedly handled the gun. He was taken to hospital but later died. Police have yet to recover the weapon.
The latest case has also drawn attention to previous firearm-related tragedies involving young children in Brazil.
Last year, a two-year-old boy accidentally shot his mother dead after picking up his father’s Glock 9mm pistol at their home in Mato Grosso do Sul.
Footage of that incident reportedly showed the child taking the firearm from a table and pulling the trigger while his parents were talking nearby. Although the woman initially appeared to survive, she later collapsed from her injuries.
