Georgia man shot dead by 2-year-old in Savannah .

 

A Georgia police department has advised families who have guns to secure their weapon after a deadly accidental shooting. A toddler found a loaded gun and pulled the trigger, killing a man in a Savannah residential area, according to police. 

It happened Sunday, Dec. 5, and the victim was a 25-year-old man, Savannah Police Department said in a news release. “Officers responded to the 100 block of E. 64th Street around 5:30 p.m. for a shooting and discovered Dustin Walters suffering from a gunshot wound,” police said. “He was transported to Memorial Medical Center, where he died as a result of his injuries.”

Details of the shooting were not released until Dec. 14, when police revealed their investigation centered around a child. “The preliminary investigation determined that Walters was wounded when a toddler, who was just under 2 years of age, found and fired the handgun, striking Walters,” police said. Investigators are calling the shooting “accidental.” Police have not said what relationship Walters had with the 2-year-old, or who owns the gun that killed him.

“We grieve along with the Walters family,” Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter said in a release. “As a parent, I cannot imagine what this family is going through or will continue to go through in the coming years. What we want to make sure now is that parents are aware that although rare, these incidents can happen with tragic results.”

Also, In February, Gabriel Alexis Henderson, a 25-year-old mother of five in North Carolina, was killed after one of her children found a gun in her purse and accidentally fired, In April, Royal Gordon, an 8-month-old boy in Houston, died after his 3-year-old brother found and fired an unsecured gun.

Additionally,  Lynn, 21, was  on a zoom call in August, 2021 and accidentally shot and killed in Florida by a toddler who found an unsecured, loaded handgun, police said.