A 3-year-old boy shot himself in the head with a gun that a family visitor brought into a Detroit home, authorities have said.
Janette Ann Smith, 30, from Roseville, was arrested after the child wounded himself with the firearm in apartments on East Lafayette Street about 4:45 p.m. on Friday, according to NBC-affiliate WDIV.
She has been charged with careless, reckless, or negligent use of a firearm.
Smith visited the boy's mother to collect food that had been prepared for her, officers told the station.
When Smith entered the home, she put her coat, which had a gun in one of its pockets, down on a chair in the living room.
The boy then found the handgun while Smith was in the kitchen speaking with the child's mother, officials told WDIV.
Moments later the pair heard a bang in the living room and soon found he had shot himself in the head, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office told the station.
The boy was taken to a nearby hospital and is being treated for his injury.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy pleaded with residents to take care of their firearms.
"It is getting very difficult to come up with new ways to say the same thing over and over again," she said. "If you own a gun and you know young children will be in your orbit, secure it so that there will be no access."
"If you are traveling with a gun, follow the law while doing so, and by all means, make sure that children cannot get to it. Secure your gun and save young lives from death, serious injury or harm of any kind."
Newsweek has contacted the prosecutor's office for comment.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a database that collects information about shootings across the U.S., 39 children aged 0 to 11 nationwide have suffered firearm-related injuries since January 1, 2022.
The same database also found 14 children aged 0 to 11 nationwide had died after being shot over the same time period.
Last week, a mother was charged with manslaughter after her 2-year-old son shot and killed himself.
Hueytown police in Alabama said in a statement authorities had responded to a report of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and found infant Kyler Small had been shot.
He was taken to a nearby hospital but was later pronounced dead.
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