ST. LOUIS – Detectives are heartbroken as they investigate an accidental shooting in north St. Louis overnight.
The shooting happened around midnight, with St. Louis police rushing to a shooting call on the 700 block of Thrush Avenue in the Baden neighborhood.
At a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Mitch McCoy, a spokesman for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, said the shooting happened as four children, all under the age of 10, were left alone at the home without adult supervision.
McCoy said that a mother left the children at the home while she went to the store. At some point after that, one child found a gun that was not secure, and fatally wounded the 4-year-old girl. One of the other children called 911.
The girl who died was a twin, McCoy said.
Women’s Voices Raised for Social Justice, a group advocating for safety in the St. Louis area, is working to protect children through its free gun locks program, Lock It for Love, which distributed more than 6,000 locks in 2023.
“We provide gun locks to several groups in the community for that very purpose,” Karen Kloyd, program spokeswoman, said. “No explanation is required. If they need a gun lock;, they go into one of the libraries or other partners throughout the metro areas as well.”
Police said it’s unclear if the mother will face charges.
“Get a gun lock. The safest way to have a gun in your home is to have it secure from small children,” Kloyd said.
Community leaders said one important step for adults to protect their children from gun violence is to secure their weapons.
“We have to do better with keeping our kids safe. A very easy way to do this is that guns need to be stored securely, ammunition stored in a separate location; but kids do no need access firearms,” Kloyd said.
“It’s heartbreaking for everybody. It’s heartbreaking for the family, it’s heartbreaking for the first responders who have to go to one of those scenes. I can’t imagine how horrific it would be. It’s bad for the surviving children in the house. It’s just horrible and it can be prevented … those tragedies do not have to occur.”
