Police: Boy, 4, dead after finding gun in sitter's home

Jeremy Desel | KHOU-TV, Houston

Show Caption Hide Caption 4-year-old dead after finding gun in babysitter's home Police say a 4-year-old boy shot and killed himself with a loaded gun left in his babysitter's home. Police say the boy was not breathing when EMS crews arrived and they were unable to revive him.

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — The quiet of a Sunday morning did not last long in the Imperial Green Neighborhood.

More than a dozen police and emergency vehicles crowded a small street after a call of a shooting involving a child.

Harris County Sheriff's Office homicide detectives say that it appears that a 4-year-old boy got his hands on a loaded gun in the home and somehow shot himself.

The boy was not breathing when EMS crews arrived and they could not revive him.

For hours, the parents of the boy were kept outside the house in the back of separate constable's vehicles.

Neither of them were at the scene at the time of the incident but at least three other people were at the scene Sunday morning. Two of them were brought outside the house with brown paper bags covering their hands until they could be tested for gunshot residue.

Investigators would not comment on where the gun may have come from or if anyone else was with the boy when he found the gun.

"Me and my wife, we was just coming from the store," said Pink Townsend, a neighbor. "It is a tragedy is what happened."

Within minutes of the incident the streets and sidewalks filled with neighbors and family of the victim, including his mother and father.

The house is occupied by a longtime friend of the young victim's mother. The boy was left there overnight while his mother celebrated her birthday.

Just after noon, the unidentified woman who was caring for the boy in her home was taken to the hospital after collapsing multiple times after talking with detectives. There was no word on her condition.

The incident stunned the neighbors.

"It is horrible. I can't imagine the pain, whoever's fault it is. The kind of guilt they are going to live with," said Nour Chalhoub, who lives across the street. "Somebody is at fault. It is definitely not the child."

Harris County Homicide Detectives said no one has been charged, but the case is being prepared for a grand jury.

This is the second fatality involving a young child and a gun in just a few days. A 3-year-old died Friday in northwest Harris County.