Every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.The pictures told a story about how a 13-year-old boy accidentally shot his 6-year-old sister while they were left alone in their Oakland Park home Saturday night.The teen, whose small frame belies his actual age, drew sketches for investigators to help him explain how the gun he found discharged, sending a bullet into his sister’s chest.The girl, whose name has not been released, was fighting for her life Sunday as Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies and family members tried to piece together what happened.It is the third accidental shooting of a child by another since November.“The little boy just sat there rocking back and forth,” said a neighbor. “It’s just so devastating. They had just moved in two weeks ago.”The shooting happened around 7 p.m. in the 5900 block of Northeast Second Terrace in Oakland Park.The boy, whose name is being withheld by police, had been home alone with his sibling when neighbors heard the gun blast.The girl was alert when police and paramedics arrived, said BSO spokeswoman Dani Moschella. She was listed in critical but stable condition Sunday at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.“She seems like a fighter,” Moschella said. Details were sketchy Sunday afternoon because homicide detectives also were working a fatal shooting on Interstate 95 Sunday morning in Oakland Park.Investigators continued to work the shooting scene Sunday. It was not known whether the teen was placed under arrest.By law, the gun should have been locked in a safe place. Under Florida law, leaving a loaded firearm “within the reach or easy access of a minor” who uses it to inflict injury or death is considered a third-degree felony.“The problem is children have a fascination with firearms...when they see a firearm they see it on TV and in movies and a lot of times they have toy guns, so when they find a gun they want to see what happens. People tend not to be as cautious as they should be and tragedies happen,” Jon Gutmacher, a gun-law expert, NRA-certified firearms instructor and attorney said following the March 30 shooting of a 4-year-old girl last month.That incident happened when a 6-year-old boy shot a 4-year-old girl with a gun he had found in a car parked outside his grandparents’ home in Northwest Miami-Dade.The girl, Rahquel Carr, died a short time later. Police said that the girl’s mother, Turquisha Peacock, 26, was about to drive the children home, and had briefly left them in the vehicle unattended. She was steps from the car when she heard the gunshot.The case remains under investigation.In November, 13-year-old Lourdes Guzman-DeJesus was killed by a teenager who had been playing with a gun on a school bus in South Miami-Dade. Suspect Jordyn Howe, 15, of Homestead, pulled the .40-caliber pistol from his backpack to show it to another student when the weapon went off. The gun belonged to his father. His parents told investigators the gun was kept in a closet.Howe will be tried as an adult on felony charges of manslaughter and carrying a concealed firearm.Lourdes’ father, Armando “Alex” Guzman-Cirino, 34, committed suicide a few days after his daughter’s death.
(a related report on this shooting)
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