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A heartbreaking incident occurred in Newark, New Jersey, this week when a 3-year-old boy accidentally shot himself with a gun. The child, now in critical condition, is receiving treatment at University Hospital following the tragic event, which has reignited concerns over gun safety in homes.
The shooting took place on Thursday, Aug. 15, around 5:47 p.m., inside a home on Wainwright Street near Bragaw Avenue. Newark Public Safety Director Fritz Frage confirmed in a statement that officers responded to a report of a shooting and found the injured boy inside the residence, along with two other children who were unharmed.
“A firearm was recovered at the scene. The shooting appears to have been accidental and self-inflicted,” the Newark Police Department told PEOPLE in a statement. “This incident remains under investigation. No further information is available.”
Disturbing details have emerged through surveillance footage obtained by WABC-TV, which captured the young boy’s older brother entering a local corner store just minutes after the shooting. Covered in blood, the older sibling desperately sought help, telling the store manager that his younger brother couldn’t breathe.
The manager recalled the horrifying moment to the outlet: “Boss, there’s a little boy rolling around in blood,” the store clerk reportedly said after rushing to the home to check on the injured child. The store immediately called 911.
For local parents like Edith Frinpong, the incident was a chilling reminder of the importance of gun safety. “We should be careful to put weapons in our homes … in a safe place,” she told ABC7. “I’m scared myself because we were here, but we didn’t know what was happening, but we saw all the cops and everything.”
In response to the shooting, the Newark Department of Public Safety posted an advisory on Facebook, urging residents to practice gun safety by ensuring that firearms are “unloaded and locked up” in secure storage. They recommended storing ammunition separately and using gun locks, while also emphasizing the need to keep keys or passcodes hidden.
“You cannot be too careful about where and how you secure a firearm, especially in homes or other locations where children may be present,” the message warned, directly referencing the “self-inflicted shooting of a child” in the community.
This tragedy in Newark closely follows a similar incident that occurred several months earlier in Charlotte, North Carolina. There, a 3-year-old boy accidentally shot himself with his mother’s unsecured gun. Despite being rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
At the time, Major Bret Balamucki stressed the importance of gun safety, saying, “A tragedy like this should wake us all up on understanding the importance of the responsibility we all have… Wherever you think you may have hidden that weapon – if it’s loaded and it doesn’t have a lock on it that the child can’t defeat – then potentially they could gain access to it.” These incidents are stark reminders of the dangers of unsecured firearms in homes with children and highlight the critical importance of strict gun safety measures to prevent such tragedies in the future.
