Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said investigators are still trying to determine where the gun came from in the shooting death of the little boy. “It’s a sad day for Cleveland,” Williams told reporters outside the house. “A 1-year-old child lost their life today.”
According to the Associated Press, the one-year-old child, identified as Braylon Robinson, was pronounced dead of a gunshot wound to the head at the hospital. Williams said there was one adult present in the home at the time of the shooting.
Neighbors say there were at least three children living in the home. “They were really nice,” next-door neighbor Larry Simpson said of the family. “It’s a shame this had to happen.”
Williams spoke briefly after crime scene investigators were finished inside the house. He said the cultural obsession with handguns may have led to the little boy’s death, saying the person responsible for bringing the handgun into the home and leaving it unattended, and in reach of a small child, may face charges.
“The fascination with handguns, not just in the city, but in the country, has to stop,” he said. “We need to take a long look at what we’re doing on the state, local and national level to keep these guns out of our communities.”
“There had to have been adults that either supplied the weapon, (loaded) the weapon, or that knew the weapon was there and didn’t do anything to safeguard it,” Williams added.
