DETROIT – A Roseville woman has been charged after a 3-year-old boy found a gun and shot himself inside a Detroit home, officials said.
Janette Ann Smith, 30, of Roseville, has been charged in connection with the non-fatal shooting, which happened at 4:45 p.m. Friday (Jan. 14) at the Martin Luther King Apartments on East Lafayette Street in Detroit, according to authorities.
Police said Smith went to the home to visit the boy’s mother and pick up some food that had been prepared for her.
When Smith took off her coat and placed it on a chair in the living room, a handgun was in the pocket, according to officials.
Authorities said the boy found the gun when Smith went into the kitchen to speak with his mother. The women heard a loud bang in the living room and realized the boy had shot himself in the head, according to prosecutors.
The boy’s mother took him to a nearby hospital, where he is currently receiving treatment, officials said.
Smith has been charged with careless, reckless or negligent use of a firearm.
”It is getting very difficult to come up with new ways to say the same thing over and over again,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said. “If you own a gun and you know young children will be in your orbit, secure it so that there will be no access.
“If you are traveling with a gun, follow the law while doing so, and by all means, make sure that children cannot get to it. Secure your gun and save young lives from death, serious injury or harm of any kind.”