November 28, 2019 

By City News Service

 

Family and neighbors mourned this morning the death of a 5-year-old boy who was killed when he found a gun that went off in his hands inside a Leimert Park home.

 

Police responded at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday to reports of a shooting in a home in the 2000 block of West 41 Street, near Van Ness Avenue, and found the child inside suffering from what appeared to be “a self-inflicted” gunshot, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

 

“Any firearm in a home needs to be properly locked, secured, so it can't be accessed by any child,” Lt. Kerri Potter of the LAPD Juvenile Division told reporters at the scene.

 

The child later died at a hospital, police said.

 

ABC7 spoke with neighbors who said the boy’s first name was Justice and who police said was a foster child in the home of his legal guardian.

 

Because of the boy’s foster child status, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services was also involved in the investigation into his death.

 

“They will be evaluating the home and any other danger to other children that live in this home,” Potter said.

 

At least two other children under the age of 12 lived at the home with the boy’s adoptive mother, ABC7 reported. Their status was unknown this morning.

 

LAPD Cmdr. Alfred Labrada told NBC4 there does not appear to be any evidence of the bullet being fired into the home from the outside.

 

“We don’t have any reason to believe there’s any danger to the surrounding community,” he said. “We don’t have any information there is a round that was fired into the residence at this point. We are looking at that as a possibility, but we don’t see that as having occurred at this residence.”

 

He said a gun was found inside the home and it “is a possibility” that the child discovered the weapon and it discharged.

 

No other injuries were reported.

 

Police said it was too early to determine if any charges would be filed in connection with this shooting. 

Category: News