Diana Penner

diana.penner@indystar.com

The parents of a 3-year-old boy who fatally shot himself in December were arrested Friday on charges of neglect of a dependent. The father faces an additional felony charge of neglect of a dependent causing death.

Warrants were issued Thursday for Nicholas Gulling, 27, and Sandra Tomich, 35 according to a release from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Both Gulling and Tomich were being held Friday in the Marion County Jail, Gulling on $20,000 bond and Tomich on $1,000 bond.

Initially after the Dec. 7 incident in the 1800 block of 68th Street, where the boy pulled a loaded gun from a kitchen counter and shot himself in the head, investigators were preliminarily classifying it as an accident.

Gulling and Tomich, and a 4-year-old sister of the boy were home at the time of the shooting.

Sgt. Kendale Adams, IMPD spokesman, said the boy’s name is not being released per guidance to the department by the city’s lawyers.

After the shooting, the child was taken to Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health in critical condition. He died hours later.

There have been at least a dozen accidental shootings of children in Central Indiana since 2008, and criminal charges in such cases are not unprecedented.

A Morgan County woman pleaded guilty to neglect and was sentenced in 2012 to eight years in prison with all but six months suspended, after her older son fatally shot his 6-year-old brother with a rifle and ammunition that she left unsecured in her home.

An Indianapolis man was sentenced to eight years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a neglect charge in 2008, when his 5-year-old son fatally shot his 4-year-old sister with a handgun found on a bookcase in the downstairs living room.

Call Star reporter Diana Penner at (317) 444-6249. Follow her on Twitter: @dianapenner.