File photo of a child holding a 9mm gun.
Police say a three-year-old boy has shot and killed himself after finding a gun in his uncle’s backpack in the US city of Tampa Bay.
Jadarrius Speights died on Tuesday after accidentally shooting himself with a 9mm gun in an apartment complex in the US state of Florida, local authorities said.
Police arrested 29-year-old Jeffrey Walker and charged him with culpable negligence, though only the toddler’s parents were present in the bedroom at the time of the shooting.
The incident was the fourth fatal shooting involving kids in the United States in the past month.
On April 30, a 5-year-old boy shot dead 2-year-old Caroline Sparks with a gun marketed as “My First Rifle” in the US state of Kentucky.
Authorities said on April 9 that six-year-old Brandon Holt died after being shot in the head by his four-year-old playmate in the US state of New Jersey.
On April 8, a four-year-old boy in the state of Tennessee shot and killed the wife of a sheriff’s deputy, using one of the loaded guns that he was showing off to a friend at his home.
The United States has for many years been engaged in shooting incidents, many of them in schools and universities. The country has been debating gun-control laws following a series of tragic shootings in the past months.
On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot twenty children and six adult staff members in a mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Before driving to the school, Lanza had shot and killed his mother at their Newtown home.
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This article originally appeared on : Press TV