2-year-old boy fatally shot was playing with loaded handgun, NC sheriff’s office says
A toddler fatally shot in Benson on Sunday night died after finding a loaded handgun in his father’s pickup truck, the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.
Deputies responded to a call of a gunshot wound to a child at a home on West Watson Road in the McGees Crossroads Community shortly after 6 p.m.
Warren Bennett Oser, a 2-year-old child, was found with a gunshot wound, authorities said in a news release.
Warren’s parents were present at the scene.
Investigators determined the child had climbed into his father’s truck through an open door and was playing with a loaded handgun in the vehicle.
Warren fired the gun, injuring himself. He died at Johnston Medical Center Clayton, the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release..
“This death investigation is considered to be an unfortunate accident at this time; however, this investigation is ongoing,” the release stated.
Child gun fatalities in NC
The firearm death rate for children in North Carolina doubled between 2019 and 2020, according to the North Carolina Child Safety Task Force. It reported 105 children died from firearms in 2020 and hundreds more were injured.
In a May 2022 report, the task force reported 21 unintentional firearm deaths among children up to 17 years old between 2016 and 2020 . It recommended funding a $155,000 two-year statewide firearm safe storage awareness initiative.
More than half of gun owners in a 2016 Johns Hopkins University study reported storing at least one gun unsafely, according to the May report.
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This story was originally published October 17, 2022 at 8:56 AM.