A woman has been charged after her 5-year-old brother found a gun that may have belonged to her and fatally shot himself with it, police said.
Danya Bell, 29, faces a charge of child endangerment causing death, police said. She was arrested Sunday, about three hours after the shooting.
The 5-year-old boy fatally shot himself in his head about 1:15 p.m., after finding a gun in his sister’s purse while she was showering inside an apartment in the 4400 block of South Greenwood Avenue in Kenwood, Chicago police said.
Bell, the boy’s 29-year-old sister, is a concealed carry holder with a firearm owner’s identification card. She had her gun in a black zippered purse on a bed and was showering when she heard a loud noise coming from one of the bedrooms in the apartment, according to a police report.
The child was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he was initially listed in critical condition, police said. He was pronounced dead at 5:06 p.m. Sunday, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Bell is due in court Wednesday.