A toddler that was playing with her father’s handgun shot her pregnant mother Tuesday in a northwest Indiana parking lot, according to media reports.
A 3-year-old girl in the back seat of a vehicle when she shot her pregnant mother outside Plato’s Closet in the 300 block of 81st Avenue in Merrillville at 3:52 p.m., WMAQ-TV (Channel 5) Chicago reported.
The girl’s 1-year-old brother was also in the car at the time of the shooting. Her father was inside the store at the time, the station reported.
Police took her father into custody.
“A loaded weapon with children in the back seat: real careless act,” Merrilville police Chief Joe Petruch told WMAQ-TV. “I hope she survives the gunshot wound.”
The couple lives in Michigan City.
The mother was taken to Methodist Hospitals Southlake Campus in Merrillville.
A Plato’s Closet employee said that she brought the children into the store while they waited for police to arrive, say reports.
“I walked outside and there was just blood falling everywhere,” Hadassah Zirkle said.
