Baby shot in the face by six-year-old in tragic US backyard shooting
Rachel Lang
Featured Image Credit: Alamy
A baby has been shot in the face by his brother in yet another horrific and senseless gun incident in the US.
The six-year-old boy was playing with their father's gun in the backyard of their Detroit home when the firearm went off and shot the infant twice.
Bullets from the unregistered semi-automatic weapon struck the infant in the face and the shoulder.
Miraculously, the baby is expected to survive despite the June 8 shooting.
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Detroit Police Department Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald revealed the baby is in a serious yet stable condition.
"Here we are again. Once again another senseless, preventable, horrible incident for this young kid. It's a baby - one year old," he told reporters at a press conference.
"The baby was in his bouncy, the preliminary information is that another family member, a young child, got a hold of a gun and shoots his sibling, not once but twice."
He urged Americans to keep their guns out of reach of children.
"We're here far too often talking about securing your weapons," Fitzgerald said.
"There are gun locks, there are gun safes, there are the highest shelves you can find in your house. Put the gun up as high as you possibly can."
Both the baby and the six-year-old boy were not being watched by their father who was elsewhere in the backyard of their Tennessee Street home.
He was with an uncle and the children's mother was visiting a relative's house nearby.
He added the six-year-old has likely been left 'traumatized' by the incident.
Local woman Syreeta Wilson told WXYZ Detroit that the community is shaken by the incident but not surprised.
"It's happening too much. We losing too many people over this. These weapons."
"Get a lock, a safe deposit box. Lock it up in a closet so they can't reach it. We need to really stop this. We're adults, they're children. They're innocent."
Investigators remain on scene.
Detroit Police revealed evidence recovered from the scene will be presented to a prosecutor and all involved are cooperating with police.