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Toddler, 3, accidentally shoots and kills 9-year-old sister

On Saturday afternoon, Kimberley Reylander and her three-year-old brother were visiting their great-grandparents’ home in Irondale, Alabama. Kimi and her brother were playing alone in the great-grandparents room while the adults were elsewhere in the house.

The three-year-old picked up a loaded gun and it went off. Kimberly, who was known as Kimi, was playing on the floor at the time. The bullet struck the nine-year-old girl in the head and she was airlifted to a children’s hospital where she died later that afternoon.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a loaded gun was left on a night table in the room by the children’s great-great grandfather who was not at home at the time. He told police he did not know the children would be coming over that afternoon and relatives that were in the house at the time said they did not know the loaded firearm was there.

While police are investigating, they are now describing what happened as a tragic accident. Charges are not expected to be laid in the little girl’s death. Police Chief Ken Atkinson said the lesson is to make sure weapons are put out of sight and out of reach of all people, especially children. “It is tragic because this three-year-old has no idea what is going on now. It is just a horrible situation.”

Last October, the Washington Post reported incidents such as this occur on a weekly basis on the United States. The Post found 43 occurrences during 2015 that involved shootings by toddlers, three years of age or younger. In most of the cases (31 out of 43), the child ended up shooting himself or herself. Of the 31 self inflicted wounds, 13 resulted in the death of the child. In two other cases, other people, an adult and a one-year-old child, died. The toddlers who picked up the guns were predominately boys; only three of the 43 incidents involved girls three years of age or younger.

Kimi was in the third grade at Irondale Community School. On Monday, students were encouraged to wear blue, the nine-year-old’s favourite colour. People were there to meet students when they arrived and the school brought in 10 grief counsellors to help the students.

The little girl’s funeral is scheduled to be held on Feb. 19 and a friend of the great grandparents set up a GoFundMe page to help the family.

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