An eight-year-old boy was shot and killed Monday by a shotgun blast fired by his 10-year-old brother after the boy found the gun loaded and unattended while the boys and their older 13-year-old brother were left home alone, NBC News reports.
“I always struggle to even say it’s accidental because these are truly preventable,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. “I think it’s something we continually get the message out on: the importance of safe storage, especially when there are kids around. … In this case, we had three kids who were home alone and obviously had access to the shotgun and so that’s concerning.”
Reportedly, the family had recently moved to the Houston area and had not yet been enrolled in school, which is why they were home alone. Authorities did not know who owned the shotgun. The sheriff said the case was being referred to Child Protective Service for the safety of the surviving two children.