Detroit police update on 2-year-old shot

8 11 a.m police responded to the 12 900 block of evergreen for a child shot. We have another case of a young child two years old being shot because of an unsecured firearm inside of a residence. The child is listed in critical condition. The mother from what we're being told was I was cooking breakfast at the time and heard a loud pop sound. And found, discovered her child shot, the two-year-old. It's a four-year-old that also resides at the residence that was unharmed. The two-year-old's brother. Don't know the exact circumstances of what occurred. But what I can tell you is, it's another case of an unsecured firearm inside of a residence. The message to parents, secure firearms, anyone, whether it's a gun lock, a gun safe. It's your responsibility to secure your weapons and if you don't you'll be held accountable. My heart goes out to the mother because of course she's in tremendous pain. I talked to the mother, the father is with the two-year-old at the local hospital but this is not how I wanted to start my Monday or my Tuesday morning off but here we are. So to everybody, Secure your firearms. We do have gun locks at the police precinct. They have lockbox giveaways, but it's your responsibility to utilize it to ensure that you secure your weapon. Having your weapon in a purse, putting it up on a shelf is not enough. I'll open it up to questions. At this particular time, no one's in custody. It's not a whodunit. You know, it's actually getting to the bottom of exactly what occurred. But I can tell you what occurred. It was an unsecured firearm. So you've been coming out with the news of multiple instances involving children in gun violence in the city. What, you know, seeing this happen, what's your message to them? It's different categories. And so when it comes to inside your house, your family, if you're going to be a CPL holder or if you're going to have a gun in your house, It's your responsibility. I can't police inside your house. That's not us. It's all of us as a community thing. We have the commander of the precinct right here, Commander Newsome of the 6th precinct. He has gun locks right there. So if you need a gun lock, go to the 6th precinct. We have local churches that give out gun locks. You know, the locks. And so the media plays a part as well, and so what I do wanna do is do something different. And so I'll be brainstorming and working to better get out an education campaign message. I know Madam Prosecutor Worthy has a public service ad out talking about the consequences of if you violate safe storage, if you don't secure it, she will prosecute you. You will be held accountable, but to parents. Who, because they didn't secure the weapon and their child or a loved one gets shot and hurt, that's a lot of pain, but you still will be held responsible legally for that as well. And so it's just a tragic situation. Because people are gonna do their job and you only have so much jurisdiction in terms of, you know, what happens on the street, what happens in your home. I guess, can you just expound a little more on what you'd like to see in terms of that measures to parents or just the consequence of on the other side? I know there's levels of that, but... Yeah, yeah, um, yeah. The consequences of facing the criminal justice system, going to jail, jail time, fines, on top of the fact that someone more than likely you care about, you're responsible for them being injured, possibly killed. I believe that the child is going to survive, but at the same time, it's still something, this trauma is tragic. And I will be hosting, I'm saying it right now, I will be hosting by neighborhood police officers and DPD, we're going to start to get together community forums where we will be teaching gun safety. It's not enough just to say secure your weapon in gun safety programs. We as officers get a lot of training of how to secure our weapons. And so we have more people carrying weapons than ever before. And to the ladies out there, and I will say to the men too, because we carry man bags. A lot of folks are carrying their weapons in their little purses and man purses. You have to be very, very careful with that, too, because it still has to be in a holster, secured in a proper, safe way, because the mishandling of that weapon in your purse or your bag can still cause the weapon to fire and possibly injure someone, and you still will be in violation of safe storage. So it's a lot of things that we can do when it comes to education. Chief, was this mom's gun, and is she a CPL holder? Mom is not a CPL holder and this is mom's gun. The weapon was inside the home, so she doesn't have to be a CPO holder to have the weapon inside the gun and the weapon is registered to mom. That's right. Confirming that it was in her purse? I cannot say that. We're still going through and investigating that aspect of it, but it was an unsecured weapon regardless of where it was. Thank you so much. When we have more information, we'll make sure to update you.