Father kills daughter while showing sons guns “can kill,” police say

HOBART, Ind. -- A man has been charged with five felonies after his 9-year-old daughter was killed when a gun discharged as he was telling his kids not to play with guns in Hobart, Indiana, reports CBS Chicago.

Officers responded to a call of a person shot at about 5 p.m. Saturday, according to Hobart police. They say they found Olivia Hummel lying unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the head in the bedroom of the home. Her father, Eric Hummel, was kneeling next to her.

"She's dead. She's f—ing dead," Hummel told officers when they arrived, police said.

An officer found no pulse and attempted chest compressions before Olivia was taken to St. Mary Medical Center, where she died at 5:25 p.m., according to the Lake County coroner's office.

An autopsy Saturday didn't reach a conclusion on the cause and manner of her death, pending further investigation.

Prior to the gun going off, Hummel had told his two sons not to play with the gun because "it can kill," police said.

The gun was unloaded when Hummel was showing it to his sons, police said. He later re-loaded the gun, but forgot he'd done so.

He told the boys to "never use a gun" and "this is why" before pointing it at his daughter, who had just walked into the room, and shooting her in the head, authorities say.

"He shooted her," one of the boys told officers, police said. "They were playing."

The boys also told officers that their father had pointed the gun at them and pulled the trigger at each before it was loaded, police said.

"Pop pop pop," the kids told officers their dad had said, prompting one of the boys to run away.

When Hummel called his wife to tell her what happened, she dropped the phone and started screaming, she told police.

"I shot her. I'm so sorry," Hummel told his wife, as he cried, according to police. "It was so stupid."

Eric Hummel was taken into custody, and was being held in the Lake County Jail.

He faces charges of reckless homicide, neglect of a dependent resulting in death, batter resulting in death to a person less than 14 years old and two counts of neglect of a dependent, all felonies, police said.