By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A two-year-old boy has shot his pregnant mum, Laura Ilg with a loaded handgun in their Ohio home in the United States, killing her along with the unborn baby, the police said.
Ilg who was accidentally shot by the 2-year-old son in the back, died from her injuries hours later in the hospital, police source added.
Police chief David Smith on Tuesday told journalists that 31-year-old Ilg had called 911 on the afternoon of June 16.
”She explained she was 33 weeks pregnant and her two-year-old had accidentally just shot her in the back with a firearm,” Smith said to local ABC affiliate News 5 Cleveland.
Police had on Friday arrived at the home in Norwalk, Ohio, and Ilg was rushed to hospital, but her unborn baby could not be saved after an emergency c-section, Smith said.
Norwalk Police Department early Saturday put out a statement on its Facebook page and said it offered “sincere and heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and all those affected by the tragic passing of the young mother and her unborn son.”
According to the police chief, Ilg was conscious when officers arrived and she told them that her son had somehow gotten into the usually locked bedroom while she was doing laundry and started playing with the gun.
He said police found a Sig Sauer Micro 9mm handgun on a nightstand as well as two other loaded firearms.
Ilg’s husband, who was not at home at the time of the incident, said they belonged to him, according to media reports.
Smith said there had been some safety measures in place at Ilg’s home, but urged gun-owners to take precautions.
“Trigger locks, gun safes, there are a million varieties, they’re not that expensive. At the very least, leave them (guns) unloaded,” he told News 5.
Accidental shootings is the latest in a long line of such incidents in the United States, a country of around 330 million people and some 400 million guns.
In March, a three-year-old girl accidentally killed her four-year-old sister with a handgun near Houston, Texas, despite the presence of five adults including their parents in their home.
