A 3-year-old child was killed Sunday when he was shot in the chest with a .380-caliber handgun at a home at 2004 Ford St., Vicksburg Police Chief Walter Armstrong said.

Armstrong said officers responding to the call about 12:23 p.m. found the child on the floor of the house being attended to by Vicksburg Fire Department paramedics. He said a man identified as the child’s father, told officers he was asleep in the house at the time of the shooting.

The man said the child apparently got the gun from a drawer where it was kept. While playing with the gun, the gun went off, striking the child in the chest.

Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said the child was declared dead at the home and an autopsy has been ordered.

“We are treating this as a death investigation,” Armstrong said, adding further information on the case was pending the results of the autopsy at the State Crime Lab in Jackson.

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