North Carolina Toddler Fatally Shoots Himself In The Head

Authorities say that a 2-year-old High Point, North Carolina boy has died after he shot himself while playing with a handgun.

Evidence at the scene showed that Benson Jones was handling a Taurus .380 semiautomatic pistol when it went off. Police were called to the home at 4:30 pm on Saturday, after the toddler reportedly shot himself in the head. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he died hours later.

Guilford County Assistant District Attorney Walt Jones said, “We’ve got to wait for gunshot residue (test results), but everything would tend to indicate the child got a gun and played with it and shot himself,” He added that  “It’s a small pistol like you keep in a lady’s purse or somebody’s pocket. It’s not a big gun at all.”

An adult caregiver was reportedly with the child at the time of the shooting and the child’s father was on the porch when the gun went off.

Neighbor Benson Johnson said that Saturday afternoon was the first time he saw Benson and his father. Johnson said the father asked him if he had any extra toys for his son to play with, just moments before the tot was shot.

“He said, ‘thank you for the toys,’ and the dad was just sitting there with his back kind of turned to us and just texting on his phone… and it wasn’t 10 minutes later we heard a pop,” Johnson said. “When the baby fell the daddy jumped up and said, ‘My baby just shot himself’ and that’s when San and I rushed over to the yard to see what we could do to help you know.”

No arrests have been made and police are not seeking any suspects at this stage. Jones said the next step in their investigation is to figure out who owns the gun and how the toddler got a hold of it.