A 3-year-old child shot and injured two people in Indiana on Thursday evening, which led to the arrest of a man wanted for murder in Illinois, law enforcement told CNN. The child got access to a gun and fired one round, striking two people at an apartment in Lafayette, Lafayette Police Department Lt. Justin Hartman told CNN.
Officers responded to a local hospital where the two victims were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries after the shooting, Hartman said. One of the victims is the child’s mother, he added. Police did not say how the child was able to access the gun or what type of weapon was used.
The second shooting victim, identified as 23-year-old Trayshaun Smith, was a friend of the child’s mother who was visiting the apartment, Hartman said. Smith, a resident of Lafayette, was then arrested on an active murder warrant issued out of Cook County, Illinois, the lieutenant said.
Last Tuesday in Texas, a 4-year-old shot and wounded his 1-year-old sibling in the leg. The injuries were not life-threatening.
In 2023 there were at least 114 unintentional shootings by children, resulting in 47 deaths and 69 injuries nationally.
