As Thanksgiving ended in Philadelphia, a couple was charged when their four year old son shot his cousin who was just two years of age with a .40 caliber pistol. The boy is severely injured and is hospitalized in critical condition.
The family lives in North Philadelphia and the two kids were playing in the living room of the house when this tragic incident unfolded shortly before dinner for Thanksgiving was served. The Chief Inspector, Scott Small informed reporters that while the mother was preparing Thanksgiving dinner, the two kids were playing with the gun and that's how things had gotten out of hand.
Sonia Pizarro, a neighbor spotted numerous police cars outside the house at around 5:00pm and hurried to inform the others. According to RT, the father ran outside screaming, "my baby, my baby, my baby."
The two-year-old cousin was immediately taken to Temple University Hospital but was then transferred to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children where it was notified that he was in a critical but stable condition.
The parents Rachel Santiago and Omar Vega, both of the age 34, were shell shocked after the incident unfolded. Reportedly, the couple has three children according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The landlord of the house where the family was living reported that he had rented the place for around two years, however, refused to give out further details and said that he did not hear about the shooting, according to ITV.
Both of the parents were charged for endangering the welfare of a child while the father is now also facing charges on illegally possessing a weapon. In fact, the police found two unregistered guns from the house. According to Gun Violence Archive, a U.S website that keeps track of the number of shootings occurring in the U.S, a total of 620 children have been killed or injured in similar situations and the number of such cases has surged up to 51,000 this year only.
There must be measures adopted to curtail these kinds of incidents as they're not only jeopardizing the lives of innocent children but are also messing up the social environment overall. Small ghettos and cities must be paid special attention since it's people living in these areas that possess unlicensed guns.
