A boy, aged 3, accidentally killed his mother after picking up a gun and shooting her with it while they were sitting in a car outside a Food 4 Less in a Chicago suburb.
The father of the boy is now facing a misdemeanor gun charge following the shooting, the community’s police chief said Monday, March 14.
The shooting happened at around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 12, when the son of 23-year-old Romell Watson and 22-year-old Daejah Bennett found a gun while the family were sitting inside their car in a parking lot, in south suburban Dolton.
Police said the father was in the driver’s seat, the mother in the passenger seat and the boy in a car seat in the back after they had been shopping at a Food 4 Less, in the community about 20 miles south of Chicago.
“He somehow got ahold of the gun and began playing with it in a playful manner, pointed the gun and fired the shot,” Police chief Collins said.
A bullet struck Bennett in the neck, the chief said. She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.