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5-year-old boy finds gun, kills self
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Maricopa County Sheriff's Office cars are parked in front of a home where a 5-year-old found a handgun and shot himself to death.
Thomas Boggan, Tribune
A 5-year-old boy who found a 9mm handgun inside a bedroom of his family’s home shot himself in the stomach with it Monday morning and was pronounced dead a short time later.
He was pronounced dead at Maricopa Medical Center after being flown there by helicopter.
Capt. Mark Cichocki of the Rural/Metro Fire Department said the boy was at the home in the 9800 block of East Billings Street, in an unincorporated county island in Mesa, with his father when the self-inflicted gunshot happened about 9:45 a.m.
The boy’s father called 911, and began performing CPR on the boy as dispatchers instructed him to do so, Cichocki said.
“The boy passed out and stopped breathing,” Cichocki said. The name of the boy or his parents were not available, but neighbors along East Billings described the family as tight-knit and religious.
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office investigators were investigating the scene.
Lawrence Gage, a next-door neighbor to where the shooting happened, said he would see the boy playing in the yard and would sometimes talk to him.
“He was a very sensible little boy,” Gage said.
Craig Krumsiek, another neighbor said, “It’s sad. I don’t know what their mindset was, or if there was a perceived threat as to why they had a gun inside their house, and how it was in reach of a kid.”
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