Florida toddler dead after accidental shooting with dad’s gun, police say

A three-year-old boy has died after accidentally shooting himself on Thursday in Bartow, Florida, according to Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

The shooting occurred outside of a Burger King as the child was in the backseat of a car, Polk County Sheriff Gary Judd said during a news conference.

“We have a three-year-old child — who was turning four-years-old in only four days — that, from all initial indications, got a firearm and shot and killed himself tonight,” Judd said.

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Police said that around 6:23 p.m., the boy’s father was in the drive-through at Burger King to order dinner when the sale wouldn’t go through on his credit card.

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“The reason the sale wouldn’t go through he’s only been here about four months from Connecticut. Our victim’s dad and mom, both are managers — and well thought of — at Lowe’s, and they moved south to get in the warm weather. So, he’s had problems with the credit card seeing that their sale’s in Florida and they live in Connecticut,” Judd said.

Judd said that the victim’s father then parked and was distracted as he tried to get his credit card to work.

“As he’s bending over, looking at his credit card, he’s carrying this Glock in his waistband, and it is very uncomfortable because he’s bending over, so he takes his Glock out of his waistband and lays it down,” Judd said.

“The child is in the backseat playing and he [the father] is now trying to figure out how to get whatever device he’s working with to pay for their dinner when all of a sudden he hears a loud pop,” he continued.

Judd said that surveillance video from Burger King shows the man jump out of the vehicle and “frantically start running around.”

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“We see a lady next door, in the car next door to him, jump out, and she’s dialing 911,” he added.

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The child was rushed to Lakeland Regional Health, where he was pronounced dead at about 7:30 p.m. local time, according to police.

Judd said that no arrests have been made and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office would “not have any energy at all for suggesting criminal charges.”

“But, ultimately, that will be a decision by what I believe is the best prosecutor in the world, Brian Haas; his team, in concert with the Bartow Police Department and our detectives from the sheriff’s office homicide team,” Judd added.

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This isn’t the first incident involving a toddler and a firearm that has taken place in Florida this year.

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In July, a four-year-old boy shot and killed his two-year-old cousin with a gun that was left unsecured in a car, according to police in Florida.

Osceola County Sheriff Chris Blackmon said during a news conference that officers responded to a home in Kissimmee, where they found a two-year-old boy with a gunshot wound.

“Emergency personnel provided life-saving measures to the child, who was transported to the Arnold Palmer Hospital, where later he was pronounced deceased,” Blackmon said.

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office’s homicide unit was contacted and responded to the scene, he added.

“According to the investigation, the four-year-old family member located an unsecured firearm inside of the vehicle and discharged it, striking the two-year-old that was also inside the vehicle. The family had just arrived and were visiting here from Georgia,” Blackmon said. “The medical examiner’s office and the Department of Children and Families were notified.”

Blackmon revealed that the children were alone in the vehicle at the time of the incident.

“Family members were outside of the car and had not yet entered the home when they heard a gunshot coming from inside the vehicle,” he said.

The gun was “literally in the open,” Blackmon said during the news conference.

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“I would think if it’s in a holster, maybe make it harder for the child to manipulate, as well, but it’s literally laying out by itself. So it’s easy to grab, and you pull the trigger. And you can’t recall that, it’s not a video game,” Blackmon added. “You can’t hit reset and start over. Once you pull that trigger, that projectile is going somewhere. And this one hit a two-year-old and killed him.”

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office identified the two-year-old boy who died as Brayden Tennyson of Louisville, Ga.

Firearm injuries were the leading cause of death among children and teens ages one to 19 in 2020 and 2021 in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.