Local News

Police: 4-year-old boy fatally shot inside Muncie home

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — A 4-year-old child boy after being shot Monday at a home in Muncie in the second fatal shooting of a young child in the city in less than four months, police said.

Officers responded to a home on the city’s southeast side shortly after noon, police said. The boy died at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital.

The mother of the boy and her boyfriend face preliminary charges of neglect of a dependent and neglect of a dependent resulting in death.

A police news release did not indicate the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

A 5-year-old Muncie girl was fatally shot in the head July 26 after her 6-year-old brother removed a loaded handgun from a safe in their parents’ bedroom and shot her.

Hoffman later charged both of the parents with neglect of a dependent resulting in death.

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1 comment

TRe3BaRK November 18, 2022 at 12:59 pm

If you are going to own a gun, or multiple guns, you HAVE to talk to your children about it.

They have to know the dangers of a gun, the damage a gun can do, when to use a gun, and what targets are off limits.
If children don’t know this, then they are not going to view a gun as it should be viewed. They’ll view it as a prop from a game, or as a toy.

The July shooting mentioned they parents had taken the brother to a shooting range, to learn how to shoot a gun properly.
…great!
But, it may have been a better idea to TEACH them the consequences of shooting a gun, as something other than a target!

And for God’s sake, if you ever have unattended children in your house…
DO NOT store a gun, in a safe, where the children know where the key is!
DO NOT store your hand gun LOADED!
DO NOT store your empty-chambered gun/s where ammunition is readily available!
Lock things up safely & separately!!
Kids WILL get into everything, if they can. They are naturally curious.

ALL my guns have locks thru the chamber, and my safes & ammo containers have locks too.
…because of stories like these…

Now, I know Parents and GrandParents like to ‘think’ their little ones are “so smart”, but the truth is …they are not. Kids are born without any common sense. They learn from us, as we mold and shape their understanding of life.
Kids will make mistakes, some worse than others. It’s how they, as well as us, learn from them. BUT, Adults & Mentors need to BE THERE.. to ensure that children can continue to learn from their mistakes, minimalising the damages those mistakes cause. Both these stories mention one particular word, “Neglect”.

Gun owners have a responsibility to everyone, and that is safety. If you cannot safely keep your weapons away from those whom do not understand.. then you should never have owned that weapon in the first place.

I pray that these families can learn to live with these tragedies. I know that i would have a rough time with this.
In just a fraction of time, one mistake can destroy the lives of many. The Parents daughter, the Parents son, these situations would likely have been prevented if properly stored, out of the reach of children.
…this too, would have only taken a fraction of time.

Think about where your guns are located, and how they are stored.

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