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(AP) A 4-year-old boy found a loaded gun in
his family's house and fired it through the front door, killing his
5-year-old sister and seriously wounding another boy, authorities said.
An older sister had seen the child pick up the semi-automatic
handgun in the house Saturday night and had rushed the other children
outside to try to protect them, but the bullet went through the door,
hitting them, said Prince George's County police spokeswoman Cpl. Diane
Richardson.
The two wounded children stumbled across the street
and collapsed in a neighbor's driveway, she said. Kimberly Brice was
pronounced dead after arrival at a hospital.
The bullet had hit
the boy, age 7, in the back and then hit Kimberly, Richardson said. The
injured boy was expected to survive, she said. Police believe he is other
children's half-brother.
“It's a terrible situation that probably
could have been avoided,” Richardson said. “It's quite obvious the gun was
not secured.”
She said the 4-year-old cannot be held criminally
responsible, but the parents or other adults connected to the house could
potentially face charges of leaving the young children unattended or
leaving the gun where the children could get to it.
“We're still
trying to determine where the parents were” during the shooting,
Richardson said. The older sister who was with the children was 10 years
old.
The mother of the three siblings went to one of the hospitals
after the shooting, Richardson said. A man lives in the house as well, she
said, but it wasn't clear Sunday what his relationship to the woman or the
children is.
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