4-Year-Old in Car With Mom Fatally Shoots Himself

Tragedy in Louisiana, where a 4-year-old boy fatally shot himself with a gun he found in his mom's car Saturday. Jarion Walker was in the back seat of the car with his two younger siblings, ages 22 months and about one year, while their mother and another adult smoked weed in the front seat, NOLA.com reports. The adults did not realize the child had found a gun, the Sun-Herald reports. Ballistic evidence, and the fact that the boy suffered a gunshot wound to the forehead, "made it more probable than not" that he, and not one of the younger children, fired the fatal shot, police say.

“These types of deaths can certainly be prevented," the local sheriff says. "Gun safety is something that is apparent. We shouldn’t ever leave a gun inside of our vehicle for numerous different reasons, this one being the most tragic reason." Even so, no charges have been filed at this point. "We can always put blame on people but ... I don’t think it’s appropriate to make an arrest on this at this point. They’ve just lost a child, that certainly wasn’t intentional by any means," he said, adding that the department will turn over its findings to the district attorney's office when the investigation is complete. (More Louisiana stories.)