A five-year-old boy died when he shot himself in the face with a handgun he had found at the family home where he had been left alone with his four siblings.
Victim Sturlin Minion had been bouncing on a bed playing when he turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger on 9th December, killing himself instantly.
Sturlin had been left in the home in Detroit, in the US state of Michigan, with his siblings while one parent visited friends and the other was working on a car repair.
Horrified police say he found the gun on a chest of drawers and started playing it.
Sturlin was declared dead at the scene and both his parents were arrested as police investigate the tragic death.
Detroit Police Chief James White told local media: “Absolutely ridiculous, irresponsible, stupid and unnecessary and I’m sick and tired of it, and we have now a baby dead weeks before Christmas.”
He added: “He should be excited about getting Christmas toys, and the parents leave a gun unsupervised.
“When parents are making these types of decisions [the children] don’t have a chance.”
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Sturlin’s four siblings are aged four, eight and two seven-year-old twins.
Sophia Perryman, Sturlin’s grandmother told local media: “I used to call him golden because everything about his exterior, hair and everything was gold, he was a beautiful child.”
She claimed her son was at work the day when the shooting happened.
She said: “I text my son, every time he always says. ‘I’m at work,’ and he was at work the day that it happened.
“I was supposed to get them, they called me Friday, I was so busy though. I wish I would have gotten them before I got busy.”
Police have not revealed what charges the parents could be facing.
The investigation is ongoing.
