A toddler died on Wednesday night after finding a gun and accidentally shooting himself in the chest, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said.
According to deputies, the boy's parents were moving out of their house in the 1000 block of Misty Hollow Lane in Tarpon Springs just before 5 p.m. when 2-year-old Kaleb Ahles entered their car.
Kevin Ahles, 23, the child's father, had left a .380 caliber handgun secured in the vehicle, deputies said.
Kaleb was alone inside the car when the family heard a loud popping sound. Deputies said the toddler located the gun in the glove box of the car and and shot himself in the chest.
"He probably barely got the trigger pulled, but it was enough to fire the gun and kill him," said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.
"There's plenty of witnesses to corroborate that Kaleb was in the car by himself," said Sheriff Gualtieri. "There's no indication of criminal activity, no indication of any foul play other than it is what I described to you as a tragedy."
No charges are expected to be filed.
"Sometimes bad things happen," Sheriff Gualtieri said.
"secured in the vehicle"
ReplyDeleteIf it truly was secured, the child would not be dead.
I must agree Sandra. Too many people seem to equate hidden or out of site with secured or safe. Kids are naturally curious and will make it their personal mission to find whatever you may be hiding.
DeleteI'm also not comfortable with assertions that all that is needed is training to make kids safe around firearms. A lot of this comes from personal experience in how kids can completely blow past boundaries of what would be considered good decisions. For example, one of my now adult sons burned himself pretty good by him and his brother setting him on fire to make a YouTube video.
And while it may mark me as paranoid, the potential outcome of your decision to allow access to a child, and them making a mistake is what the Army refers to in its risk management process as catastrophic.
As long as you are the parent, and they are a child, you are both legally and morally on the hook for their misuse of firearms under your control.
But what about that unbelievable nonchalant response - ""Sometimes bad things happen," Sheriff Gualtieri said."
ReplyDeleteThe sheriff should be slapped hard.
But what about that unbelievable nonchalant response - ""Sometimes bad things happen," Sheriff Gualtieri said."
DeleteAs it turns out, Sheriff Gualtieri is quite right--sometimes bad things do indeed happen. The fatal shooting of a 2-year-old would certainly qualify as a "bad thing," at least to anyone with a modicum of morality.
The sheriff should be slapped hard.
Now this is interesting. You want physical violence to be committed against him? You want someone to commit assault and battery? You must know that physically attacking a law enforcement officer can be lethally dangerous--you rail against such incidents all the time.
But, since the sheriff said "[s]ometimes bad things happen," your need for violence against the sheriff has become so great that you want someone to risk death to harm him?
Does anyone else smell hypocrite?
What we smell is a petty, picky, whiney pain-in-the-ass - you. My point, which you understood perfectly well but pretended not to in your typical lying way, is that the sheriff's response was too nonchalant. The gross negligence of allowing a 2-year-old access to a gun resulting in his death, should not be referred to a "bad things happen." Doing so is to excuse the grotesque irresponsibility of the adult gun owner.
DeleteI "pretended" nothing, and I certainly will not pretend to have failed to notice your attempt to incite violence against the sheriff.
Delete