A 9-year-old boy was fatally wounded when he accidentally shot himself Wednesday inside an Austin home on the West Side.
The boy was playing with a gun about 1:45 p.m. in the 1500 block of North Lorel Avenue when the gun went off, hitting him in the head, according to Chicago police.
Ashton Lipscomb was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
It was not immediately clear who owned the gun or whether anyone had been taken into custody as Area Five detectives continue to investigate, police said.
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One neighbor said the boy used to ride his bicycle up and down the street. Another said she saw him helping mow the lawn earlier this week.
Devon Guy, who lives down the street, didn’t know the family personally. He said he learned of the accident on the news.
Guy, who has an 11-year-old son, urged people who have guns in their house to keep them away from children.
“People just need to put their stuff up,” he said. “It’s already crazy out here. ... They just need to watch what they do. If you know you have guns in the house, put them up, take the bullets out. There’s kids out here losing their lives. It’s crazy, it’s sad.”
Chicago has seen at least three other shootings this year in which children accidentally shot themselves.
On Sept. 15, a 5-year-old boy shot himself in the thigh after handling a gun inside a home in the Lawndale neighborhood. He was hospitalized in serious condition.
In April, another 5-year-old boy shot himself in his hand after finding a gun in his father’s pocket while his parents slept at their Woodlawn home. His father was later charged with a gun offense and trying to discard the weapon.
In March, a 13-year-old boy shot himself in his leg after handling his older brother’s gun inside their home in the Back of the Yards. The brother drove the child to Stroger Hospital, where he was listed in good condition.
In other accidental shootings involving children, a 7-year-old girl accidentally shot her 11-year-old brother in February in Lawndale after gaining access to the gun. A woman was later charged with child endangerment.
Also in February, an 8-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl were accidentally shot by another child after the child found a gun in a Bronzeville home.
In the U.S., there have been at least 221 unintentional shooting by children in 2020, resulting in 92 deaths and 135 injures, according to the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
