Florida Boy Shoots and Kills Baby, Wounds Toddler After Finding Dad's Gun in Closet

An eight-year-old Florida boy took his father's loaded gun and fired off one shot that killed a baby and wounded a toddler.

According to Crime Online, the boy's father, Roderick Dwayne Randall, 45, was arrested on Sunday and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, two counts of culpable negligence, and tampering with physical evidence.

Randall was released later in the day on a $41,000 bond. Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons noted that Randall, his girlfriend, his son, and his girlfriend's twin two-year-old girls and a one-year-old girl were at the Lion's Motel in Pensacola earlier that day.

Randall reportedly left the motel room, leaving his loaded gun stored in a holster in a closet. Simmons said while Randall was gone and his girlfriend was sleeping, the Florida boy found the gun because he knew where it was hidden.

The boy then pulled the gun from the holster, started playing with it, and accidentally fired a round into the one-year-old girl.

Florida Boy Fatally Shoots Baby

Chip Simmons said the round went through the baby and killed her, while one of the twin two-year-olds was hit. Pensacola News Journal reported that the two-year-old toddler is recovering in a hospital.

When Roderick Dwayne Randall returned to the hotel, he grabbed the handgun and suspected drugs from the room before cops were called to the scene.

The Florida boy's father was legally prohibited from owning a gun based on previous felony convictions. According to Florida Department of Corrections records, Randall was sentenced to five years in prison in 2001 for charges related to cocaine sales and possession.

The records also showed another two sentences in 2015: a one-year sentence for resisting arrest without violence and a 40-month sentence for fleeing and eluding law enforcement.

Simmons noted that the Florida boy's father has a 129-page criminal history, including 14 previous felony convictions. ABC News reported that relatives of the dead baby identified her as Kacey Bass. Kacey's mom was not charged.

U.S. Gun Violence and Children

Firearms are the second-leading cause of death in children in the United States after motor vehicle crashes. Science also reported that more children died from gun injuries than from cancer.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, guns killed nearly 3,150 people aged 1 to 19 in 2016, while cancer killed about 1,850.

Gun rights groups maintain that public health patients should steer clear of gun violence. Surgeons writing in JAMA Surgery also called on the CDC to restart their own gun violence research.

More than 40,000 health care professionals signed an open letter to the National Rifle Association complaining that the group has hobbled gun violence research. The researchers noted that more guns equate to a higher risk of homicide.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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