Detroit girl, 5, fatally shoots self with grandma’s gun

DETROIT » A 5-year-old girl fatally shot herself in Detroit early today after finding a handgun under her grandmother’s pillow.

Detroit Police Officer Dan Donakowski said that police responded to the house around midnight on the city’s northwest side and the girl was taken by medics to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

“The little girl was in an upstairs bedroom where she found the gun under her grandmother’s pillow,” Donakowski said. “She fired a shot, striking herself in the body.”

Donakowski said two other children, a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old, were also upstairs but were unharmed. Donakowski said the grandmother was downstairs cooking at the time of the shooting.

He said the grandmother was briefly taken into custody for questioning by police, but it wasn’t immediately clear if she remained in custody.

The shooting comes days after a bloody Mother’s Day weekend in Detroit left seven people dead and 14 others injured in 17 shootings across the city.

Last Sunday, a 9-year-old boy found a handgun in a neighbor’s yard and accidentally shot himself while showing the gun to his mother. Williams said the shooting happened Sunday afternoon on the city’s west side. The wounded boy was taken to a hospital.

That shooting happened shortly before 2:30 p.m. Sunday on the city’s west side, according to Officer Shanelle Williams, a Detroit Police spokeswoman. Officers arrived at the home and found the handgun on the lawn. They said they believe the gun was fired accidentally.

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