6-Year-Old Left Alone In Car With Loaded Gun In Kensington
by Elizabeth Hur
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Shocking news out of Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood – A child is left alone in a car with a loaded gun.
Police say it happened Wednesday night in the 400 block of East Clearfield Street.
Initially, police responded to a report of shots fired. Upon arrival, officers began gathering evidence and that's when they found a car with a child sitting in the driver's seat alone. Upon further inspection, officers spotted a revolver next to the child on the floorboard.
Chief Inspector Scott Small explained, "It appears to be a 44 Magnum Revolver with an 8 inch barrel. It's stainless steel so it's very shiny and we're really, really lucky that child didn't pick up the gun. At 6-years-old, you're strong enough to pull a trigger and we're very, very fortunate, that even though that child was sitting right next to the gun, literally inches away from the gun and the child was in the vehicle all by himself, there were no parents around. We're just lucky the child didn't just pick up the weapon and pull the trigger."
Police did immediately and safely pull the child out of the car and eventually tracked down his mother.
Wednesday night, the 23-year-old mother was taken to East Detectives for questioning. Police say she is now facing a laundry list of charges including weapons offenses and reckless endangerment.
