Last week, a pregnant woman and her unborn child died in the US state of Ohio after her two-year-old son shot her in the back with a handgun that had been left loaded in the home, according to police.
Laura Ilg, 31, dialled 911 on June 16 in the afternoon, according to police chief David Smith, who spoke to local media on Tuesday.According to Smith, who spoke to the local ABC affiliate News 5 Cleveland, the woman explained that she was 33 weeks pregnant and that her two-year-old had just unintentionally shot her in the back with a gun.When police quickly arrived at the Norwalk, Ohio, residence on Friday, Ilg was taken to the hospital, but Smith said that despite an emergency c-section, her unborn child could not be saved.
Hours later, Ilg succumbed to her wounds.
In the early hours of Saturday, the Norwalk Police Department posted on its Facebook page that it was sending its “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 Smith, Ilg was awake when police arrived and informed them that her son had somehow gained access to the usually locked bedroom while she was doing laundry and had begun playing with the gun.
He claimed that two other loaded guns and a Sig Sauer Micro 9mm handgun were discovered by police on a nightstand. Media reports state that Ilg’s husband, who was not home during the incident, claimed ownership of them.
The unintentional shooting is the most recent in a long line of similar incidents in the United States, a nation with about 400 million guns and 330 million residents.
Despite the presence of five adults, including their parents, in their home, a three-year-old girl accidentally shot and killed her four-year-old sister with a handgun in March near Houston, Texas.
According to the Pew Research Centre, there are guns in about 40% of US households, most of which also have children.
According to the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, however, less than half of households that own guns do so securely.
Despite the fact that Ilg’s home had some security measures in place, police chief Smith urged gun owners to exercise caution.
“There are a tonne of different trigger locks and gun safes, and neither are very expensive. Leave them (the guns) at least unloaded, he advised News 5.
