2-Year-Old Shot In The Head By Parent Accidentally

A two-year-old girl suffered life-threatening injuries after being shot in the head at her home in Salem, Oregon, on Wednesday night.

Officers responded to the home around 7 p.m. local time (10 p.m. EDT) Wednesday, after getting a call saying the toddler was accidentally shot by one of her parents. Responding officers arrived at the scene and found the toddler with a gunshot wound to the head. The girl was immediately flown to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. The girl was listed critical as of Thursday night.

Though the officers confirmed the girl’s age and said she was shot at her home, there was no information regarding how the accident happened.

Recalling the chaos near the home following the incident, Jenny Healey, a neighbor, said, “Just more and more police cars, so we knew it had to be something horrible,” ABC-affiliated television station KATU reported.

Another neighbor, Elizabeth Ensminger, said, “The ambulance didn’t linger long; they left pretty quickly.”

Thomas Leinonen, who lives in the apartment next door, said, "It's just shocking. I don't even know how to process it. The first responders all looked really concerned, and I know there were some officers that had been on the scene when it first happened and they seemed really upset and shook by it."

The neighbors also recalled the victim’s father crying in the front yard.

“He was wailing on the lawn, and we did see them take her out of the house, which was awful," Healey said. Ensminger said, he “was in the front yard and seemed rather upset obviously.”

Describing the victim’s family as “quiet,” Gary Keller, another neighbor, told CBS-affiliated television station KOIN that "they're good, quiet people. They've never been an issue in the neighborhood at all. So what can you say? It's just difficult for them. Hopefully they can get through this."

The investigation was ongoing and no arrests were made.

In a similar incident in October 2018, a three-year-old boy died after his father accidentally shot him. Argel Hernandez, from Tennessee, and his son were sitting on the front porch steps when the man’s gun went off accidentally, hitting both of them. While the man suffered non-critical injured, the child was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries, where he was pronounced dead. Hernandez was taken into custody and charged with “reckless homicide” and “aggravated child neglect,” CBS-affiliated television station WREG reported.