3-Year-Old Shoots Pregnant Mother With Father’s Gun In Heartbreaking Accident

A three-year-old girl accidentally shot her pregnant mother Tuesday in Merriville, Indiana.

The incident took place outside Plato’s Closet. The toddler, along with her four to six weeks pregnant mother and one-year-old brother, was waiting in the car out in the parking lot as the father went inside the store.

The father had left a loaded nine-millimeter handgun that he legally owned, in between the console and his front passenger seat. Without the knowledge of the mother, the three-year-old had managed to climb to the front seat and grab the gun, Fox 35 Orlando reported.

After getting back to the backseat, she pulled the trigger. The bullet fired, pierced the back of the driver seat, hitting her mother in the upper right shoulder.

The woman managed to open the door of the driver seat and walk over to the back door of the car where her children were seated. However, shortly after opening the back door, she collapsed from trauma. Employees inside the Plato’s Closet rushed outside to help the victim after hearing the gunshot.

"We just heard screaming. We ran outside with a bunch of other people. Someone said someone was hurt and bleeding," said Hadassah Zirkle, who works at Plato's Closet.

“The first thought was to get the kids out of there," said Rebecca Todd, another Plato's Closet employee, ABC7 Chicago reported. "We grabbed them. We brought them inside, and we just tried comforting them as best we could."

Witnesses called emergency services. Police arrived at the scene to find both the children unharmed inside the vehicle. The 3-year-old who had accidentally shot her mother was scared.

The victim, Shaneque Thomas, 21, who suffered a gunshot wound to her upper torso, was initially rushed to a local hospital and then airlifted to Loyola Medical Center. Her condition is currently unknown.

The father of the two children and the boyfriend of the victim, Menzo Brazier, 21, is being held in police custody for child endangerment, although official charges have not been brought against him yet. He also had a warrant out of Porter County for traffic violations.

Describing Brazier ’s reaction when he realized what had happened, Zirkle added: “He came outside, like screaming, asking what happened, kind of, like, disbelief on his face.”

Both the children have been handed over to the Indiana Department of Child Services.

Another pregnant woman was shot Tuesday in Phoenix. The suspect, who has not been identified by the police, was known to the victim and was sitting in the front seat of the car, in the area of Seventh Street and Butler Drive, north of Northern Avenue, when the shooting took place. The woman’s 6-year-old child was also in the vehicle when the shooting happened but was unharmed.

According to Phoenix police Sgt. Mercedes Fortune, the seven-month-pregnant woman was rushed to the hospital in a critical condition, where she was later pronounced dead. The condition of the unborn child was unknown.

The suspect was taken into custody after the police searched the area.