Detroit police are investigating after a child was fatally shot in a store parking lot
Police said a 6-year-old was hurt Sunday morning after finding a gun inside a home in the 8800 block of Artesian.
The incident happened at a grocery store near Gratiot and Harper.
The Detroit Police Department is investigating on scene near Gratiot and Harper avenues where police said a mother came to a strip plaza to get food while five children and a loaded gun were in the car around noon, said Charles Fitzgerald, the first assistant police chief.
Fitzgerald said authorities do not yet know how the child got the gun. One of the children went into the store to alert the mother, but it was too late.
“These things are … preventable. We have safe storage for a reason, secure your weapons,” Fitzgerald said.
After several other fatal shooting incidents, he added, “Enough is enough.”
Under Public Act 16 of 2023, a firearm stored in a vehicle “must be locked when not in use and must be secured and either locked in a container or unloaded and disabled with a trigger or cable lock if a child is present or likely to be present in the vehicle or destination.”
Mayor Mary Sheffield decried the shooting, calling it “absolutely heartbreaking.”
“What makes this even more heartbreaking is that it was completely avoidable. This is the second time in the past few days that a child in our city has been shot with a parent’s unsecured gun. By the grace of God, the other injured child will recover,” Sheffield said in a statement Monday.
