A 5-year-old girl died Saturday in Louisiana after accidentally shooting herself with her father’s handgun, Jezebel reports.
Haley Moore was spending the weekend with her siblings at their father’s house when they were left alone with a firearm, WDSU News reports. The childrens’ father, Eric Moore, alledgedly left the gun on a table when he went to take a shower and later heard a gunshot. The bullet had entered the girl’s chest and exited through her right arm.
“He’s devasted,” the family’s neighbor, Joy Ursin, told WDSU News.
The family was preparing for a morning of fun—going out to eat and then to see the new “Angry Birds” movie, the Times-Picayune reports. The girl’s two older siblings witnessed the accident, and Haley was taken to a hospital where she died Saturday morning.
Ursin claims that Moore, a disabled military veteran, was always safety conscious when preparing for his children to visit him every other weekend. “He’s not ignorant to the fact of the danger, especially when his kids are around,” she told the Times-Picayune. No charges have been filed against Moore, Jezebel reports.
According to The New York Times, in April 2016, four toddlers fatally shot themselves within one week, while playing with firearms.
“Safety, everything is safety,” Lt. Greg Baker told WDSU News. “If you’re the owner of a weapon, buy a safe box, a gun safe. That’s the way it is. Teach your kids. Teach your family about it.”