Bay Area Toddler(3) Fires Gun, Kills Dad, Police Say

[Kadie]

May 9, 2006 6:31 am US/Pacific

Bay Area Toddler Fires Gun, Kills Dad, Police Say


(CBS) ALAMEDA Police say a toddler playing with a gun fatally shot his father in Alameda on Monday afternoon.

According to the Alameda Police Department, authorities responding to several 911 calls reporting gunshots in unit 131A of 1777 Shoreline Drive found a man suffering from a gunshot wound at about 1 p.m., police said.

The man, in his 20s, was rushed to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where he died. His name has not been released.

Police say a preliminary investigation revealed that a 3-year-old child in the apartment had found a gun and was playing with it when it fired, striking the man.

more...
http://cbs13.com/topstories/local_story_129093321.html



ALAMEDA
3-year-old playing with gun kills man, 20
Next-door neighbor says victim was 'shot dead-on in the chest'
Demian Bulwa, Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writers

Tuesday, May 9, 2006



A 3-year-old boy playing with a gun in an Alameda apartment accidentally shot and killed a 20-year-old man on Monday, police said.

Police said the child found the gun inside the bedroom of the apartment at 1777 Shoreline Drive. About 1 p.m., as the boy played with the gun, it fired and a bullet struck the man, who also was in the bedroom, in the chest.

Police did not say what the relationship was between the man and the child. The identities of both were not released.

The victim was pronounced dead at Highland Hospital.

A next-door neighbor in the three-story apartment building across the street from San Francisco Bay said he was watching television when he heard "a lot of loud noises and hysterical-type screaming.''

more...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/09/BAGGIIO84E1.DTL



:cry:

[Midlodemocrat]

1. How unbelievably tragic.

May he rest in Peace.

[rocktivity]

34. The tragedy would have been if the child had killed HIMSELF.

This death was the result of criminal negligence--unfortunately, the punishment exceeded the crime.

Another dent in the image responsible gun owners. What I can't figure out is whether the child or this Drug Enforcement Administration agent is the smarter one.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Iris]

35. or, even worse, another person's child.

[Little Star]

2. OMG, Poor little toddler and

Poor father of toddler, may he RIP.

[TahitiNut]

3. A loaded gun and a 3-year-old?

Someone deserves prison time ... and it's not the 3-year-old.

[malaise]

7. It's too late for the dad

Very sad.

[slackmaster]

24. "The victim was a man visiting the family from Guatemala"

Says the article, which is actually titled:

Bay Area Toddler Fires Gun, Kills Man, Police Say

Maybe http://cbs13.com/topstories/local_story_129093321.html has been edited since the OP, but it appears the victim was not the father of the child.

[Kadie]

26. Thanks. They did update the story...

SFGate still has this...

snip...
Gore said his neighbors were a young couple with two young children. Gore said the victim was the father who lived in the apartment.


Tragic.

[malaise]

31. Damn, damn -tragic n/t

[johnnie]

8. I am thinking..

..that the one who would have deserved prison time is not alive any longer.

[laundry_queen]

9. Yeah

that's my first reaction (although I reserve the right to change my mind pending more information). I just thank gawd it was him who was shot and not the poor innocent little 3 year old. Although it's still sad for the poor little tyke. :cry:

[vogonity]

4. I'll take this at face value for the time being...

But I would REALLY like to know if there were any other adults in the home at the time.

[woo me with science]

17. That was my thought exactly. nt

[maxsolomon]

5. that child should already have completed safety training

i blame the gun grabbers for preventing it.

hell yes :sarcasm:

american tragedies of this kind will go on indefinitely.

"its WAY too late for gun control in america" - steve earle

[simonm]

10. Very Tragic

He should have used a gun lock and/or safe for safety.

[maxsolomon]

11. the kid or the dad?

i predict:
dad was young
dad was dumb
dad was poor

[simonm]

13. Dad

A simple gun lock would have prevented this incident. The dad wasn't a responsible gun owner.

[maxsolomon]

15. duh

'responsible ownership' ultimately is not enforceable & the consequences are, well, deadly. 'responsible ownership' & 'firearm safety' are the bandaid non-solution that the largely rural-oriented gun lobby offers to urban citizens who have to live with 'irresponsible' (not cheney-irresponsible, but crazy &/or stupid) owners.

but the cruelly darwinistic side of me doesnt' much mind natural selection of this type. too bad he reproduced first.

[Kadie]

16. "too bad he reproduced first"?

Can you expand a little on that?

[maxsolomon]

19. sure, but it speaks for itself

you are trying to bait me into being exposed as a rascist, or classist, i suppose. but i'll bite because i fell spiky today: i said that the 'cruelly darwinistic' side of me said that. as a libra, i can hold 2 differing opinions at once.

i was referring to natural selection, obviously. do you feel that the weaker members of a species should reproduce? humans are animals, and we have the same kinds of 'weakness' that other species do. to me, that fact that you are so stupid that you got shot & killed by your 3 year old, with your own gun, is a darwin-award worthy demonstration that this young man's genes are not going to make the species stronger.

we have lots of people like this in america. typically, they are bush voters.

[Kadie]

21. Please, I am not trying to bait you.

I just asked you to expand on what you said, and you did. Thank you. I just wanted to understand where you were coming from. That is all.

[simonm]

22. What do you propose as a solution?

Since firearm safety is not a viable solution to you, what would you suggest as the alternative? A complete ban on all guns?

[maxsolomon]

30. there is no good solution

& as a non gun owner, i don't have the responsibility of offering one. gun owners do, and hiding behind 'safety training' is dodging the issue, and gun owners & manufactureres know it. it shows that they don't think there is a problem, or are unable to synthesize a solution.

but the constitution does say 'a well regulated militia'. to paraphrase martin sheen in apocalypse now: 'i don't see any... regulation'. and it doesn't mention bullets.

is firearm safety training a viable solution to you?

[simonm]

33. Good non answer

I believe in education as a preventative measure and gun lock laws for enforcement. We may not be able to stop all dumbasses from hurting themselves or others but we can limit it.

[maxsolomon]

37. same non answer back to ya

because your 'solution' ain't workin so great.

[slackmaster]

42. The education needs to take place in public schools

Everyone who attends high school should be taught basic firearm safety.

We teach our children about drug abuse, driving, and sex. Add firearms to the list as another environmental hazard.

[DS1]

6. That kid's gonna have some issues

:wow:

[ulysses]

14. man, no shit.

[HeeBGBz]

29. About a week ago, my coworker's B.I.L. got fatally Cheney-d

He took his 12 year old nephew turkey hunting. Turkey flew up, kid shot, uncle's face was in the way. Kid ran to his aunt's farmhouse, she freaked couldn't think what number to call (911) Finally paramedics get there and the kid can't remember where they were. By the time they found him he was dead.

That kid will be traumatized for life also. Tragic event just for the male bonding desire to kill a bird.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

43. Me and my father did "male bonding" by playing chess.

I guess I'm less of a man because of that. :sarcasm:

[helderheid]

12. OMG that poor child!!

[SammyBlue]

18. Quick, Freepers. . .arrest that three year old on 1st degree murder

and demand the kid be put to death!!!

You know you want to!!!

Wait. . .wait, is the child white? If so, it was an honest mistkate, right Freepers? If the child is a minority. . .fry the child, right??? Like you wanted to do to that 5 year old up in Flint, Michigan???

[Thtwudbeme]

20. If that happened in FL, he could be tried as an adult and sentenced to the

death penalty, I suppose.

Seriously sad story; seriously sad that some stupid fucking adult left a loaded gun around where a child could get his hands on it.

[AlCzervik]

23. how fing hard is it to lock up your gun where a child won't get it?

my Dad is a gun owner--many guns and not a member of the NRA, he hates them. Growing up Dad had a gun safe and when my sister and i were old enough he took us out shooting after he schooled us on gun safety. I'm not a gun owner myself and i'm not against people having them but please, lock them up, be a responsible gun owner.

[TX-RAT]

25. This story stinks on ice.

The investigation may prove me wrong, but there's the faint smell of fish, in the air.

[slackmaster]

27. Uh-oh, sounds like the LEO sense kicking in

Now that you mention it, it does sound a little funny.

ETA California has a "Child Access Prevention" law that makes it a felony for someone to store a gun in a negligent manner, when the gun gets found by a child and someone gets injured or killed. Someone, hypothetically, claiming "The child got my gun and shot the man with it" as an alibi would still face criminal charges.

Every firearm sold in California since about 1989 has included a state-approved trigger lock.

[TX-RAT]

28. Sorry, can't help it.

[Romulus]

40. other Q's

Don't all CA residents have to pass a "Safety class" or something before they can own a handgun?

Isn't the useage of safety storage devices and the CAP law covered in the safety class?

[slackmaster]

41. Yes and Yes

Isn't the useage of safety storage devices and the CAP law covered in the safety class?

One of Dorothy Parker's most famous quotes comes to mind. Asked to make a sentence using the word "horticulture" she snapped:

"You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think."

[lumberjack_jeff]

44. I smell it too.

Who else was in the apartment? Who was doing the "hysterical screaming"?

[WI_DEM]

32. "Guns don't kill--people do" tell that to this family

[NuttyFluffers]

36. great caution must accompany the 'great equalizer'

i know 3 yr olds can get into many things, hell i electrocuted myself around that age -- i took off the safety covers on an outlet and inserted a key, but a gun is one of those things i'd stick in a combination safe, impossible w/o a ladder to reach attic, or something until my child was quite a bit older. but then that's just me. apparently this guy thought differently, and apparently now he's dead. quite sad.

[Horse with no Name]

38. As sad as this is

I'm glad the toddler didn't injure himself.
His Dad should have known better than to leave the gun where it could be reached--although the price to learn shouldn't have been this high to pay.
I wonder if they will charge the parents with homicide? What an awful thing to happen when you were visiting someone.
Also have to wonder if this is the true story?

[leesa]

39. It's what America wants, I guess. We luv them guns.

[Doctor Venmkan]

45. If only...

There was some sort of 'common-sense' test for gun ownership, and a great many OTHER uses as well.

Forget the trigger lock, even...just keep it UNLOADED and somewhere where the kid can't possibly get to it.

I'm a gun owner, and stuff like this sickens me because I know how EASY it would have been to prevent a tragedy like this! Next to no effort involved. But no, and now a man is dead and a child scarred for life.

I have to wonder, who the hell was supposed to be WATCHING this kid??? Even without guns in the equation, there's a lot of ways for a kid to hurt himself if left unsupervised.

As a gun owner, any gun of mine that is not under my DIRECT control is either hidden unloaded (with the ammunition kept elsewhere) or, if loaded, locked up in a case tucked up in a very high shelf. For added security, a gun safe is in my near future as well.