A three-year-old girl discovered a loaded gun while playing with her four-year-old sister on March 12 and accidentally shot and killed her older sibling.

At approximately 8 p.m., the tragic event occurred while the sisters were in the bedroom of the Houston apartment where they lived with their parents.

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez of Harris County stated that while the children were playing unsupervised in the bedroom, the adults and their friends were socializing in the living room.

According to the Sheriff, each parent believed the other was supervising the children, leaving them alone in the bedroom for some time.

The three-year-old picked up a loaded gun and fired it, mistaking it for a toy.

The residents of the home told police that they heard a single gunshot and immediately ran into the bedroom, where they discovered the four-year-old girl with a gunshot wound and who was unresponsive.

Her family immediately dialed 911, and upon the arrival of responding officers, the four-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sheriff Gonzalez told reporters outside the residence that it appeared to be yet another tragic case of a child accessing an unlocked and loaded firearm and accidentally injuring another person.

The District Attorney’s Office will determine whether any of the adults in the home will be held accountable and charged, according to the Sheriff.

The investigation is still ongoing, but according to the Sheriff, someone will likely be held responsible for the unlocked gun that led to the death of a child.

Sheriff Gonzalez referred to the shooting as “tragic and preventable” and urged gun owners to take every precaution to secure their firearms, particularly when children are present.

Between 2015 and 2020, children under the age of 19 committed 2,070 unintentional shootings that resulted in 765 deaths and over 1,300 injuries. Thirty-nine percent of the perpetrators of shootings were younger than nine years old.

Unfortunately, the United States leads the world in firearm-related injuries, and it is tragic that so many of the victims are children.