Girl (4) kills cousin after finding gun under bed

A four-year-old girl in Detroit shot dead her young cousin as they played with a gun, in the latest in a series of similar deaths across America.

Police said the boy, also four, was shot in the chest after the children found a rifle under a bed in a family home. Their grandfather was elsewhere in the house. The boy was dead on arrival at hospital.

Describing the shooting as a "tragic, tragic accident", Captain Rodney Cox said: "This does not appear to be responsible gun ownership."

Olivia Queensbury, a neighbour, said that the victim was "fun to be around" and "a good little boy".

Dozens of American children die in accidental shootings every year. An investigation by 'Mother Jones' magazine last month found that 194 under-12s had died in the past year from gunshot wounds. 

independent