Boy, 6, kills toddler brother, 3, with father’s illegal gun in Chicago

A 6-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his toddler brother while playing “cops and robbers” with a gun their father told investigators he had obtained illegally from a gang member, Chicago police said Sunday.

Police said on Sunday that the tragic incident happened on Saturday evening when the elder brother reached on top of the refrigerator and grabbed the loaded handgun and then accidentally shot the younger one in the face.

The boy was immediately taken to a hospital, where he passed away.

The boys’ dad, 25-year-old Michael Santiago, told police that he had obtained the weapon illegally from a gangster. He was arrested on child endangerment charges.

Assistant state’s attorney Joseph DiBella told court on Sunday that Santiago kept the gun “wrapped in pajama pants on top of the refrigerator” and showed the boy where the weapon was.

“He kept the gun for protection because he was a former gang member who snitched on a gang member in a murder trial,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot and killed in the United States.

The US averages 87 gun deaths each day as a function of gun violence, with an average of 183 injured, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab and the Centers for Disease Control.

About 4.5 million firearms are sold annually in the United States at a cost of 2 to 3 billion dollars.

So far this year, 569 children aged 11 or under have been killed or injured by guns in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Agencies/Canadajournal