Charges have been filed against two people in the separate shooting of two 2-year-olds in Chicago within hours of each other, Megan Hickey reports from CBS Chicago.
In one case over the weekend, a two-year-old girl got hold of a loaded gun and shot herself Rogers Park.
Hickey said it was unclear if either of the two accused had actually fired a weapon. But both were charged with child endangerment with possession of a loaded and unlocked handgun.
Police in Chicago say they received a call shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday from Rogers Park.
They say a little girl found the loaded gun and shot herself. The Dispatch audio said a woman called the police and said her wallet — which contained a firearm — had been obtained by her daughter.
The two-year-old girl sustained injuries to her hand and was admitted in a good condition at a hospital in Evanston, Illinois.
Neighbors didn’t have much information on Monday, except to say they heard the shots.
Chicago police said Monday that a 22-year-old woman has been charged with two misdemeanors in the Rogers Park incident — one for child endangerment, and the other for possession of a gun without valid firearm identification.
Meanwhile, 22 miles away and three and a half hours later, another 2-year-old boy was shot, police said.
Police said that at about 10:30 p.m., a two-year-old boy was playing in a bedroom when a weapon went off.
He was also injured in the hand and was taken to hospital in reasonable condition.
The police won’t say who fired the gun in that case. But a 24-year-old man has been charged with child endangerment and an arrest warrant has been issued for him.
“Two two-year-olds,” community activist Andrew Holmes lamented Sunday night. “Get a lock. Lock those guns. Search these houses—because these two kids could get permanent damage.”
Why do young kids in Chicago get loaded guns? And what is being done about it?
A 2021 study from Lurie Children’s Hospital found that 22 percent of city dwellers reported having a firearm in the home—and nearly half of those Chicago parents store them loaded.
Meanwhile, in January, two different laws went into effect.
One of them is asking the state to develop a public awareness campaign on how to store weapons safely. Local jurisdictions have taken it upon themselves to host demonstrations on how to do this.
The second law requires safe gun storage to be added to safety education lessons taught in Illinois schools. But this law would only provide school-age children with instruction and would not prevent these young children’s cases.
CBS Chicago has reached out to the Illinois Department of Public Health for an update on the public education campaign, five months after the law went into effect.
Late Monday, the station still hadn’t heard back.
