Boy, 5, accidentally shoots nine-month-old brother dead
"I'm sorry, Mom. I shot Corbin."
Just moments before, 26-year-old Alexis Wiederholt had been holding her 9-month-old son in her arms.
As she went to the kitchen, she heard a loud pop and returned to see what had happened.
As his five-year-old brother made his apology as she saw her infant child lying motionless in his playpen and bleeding.
Aghast, the young mother called for emergency services, claiming that Corbin had been shot with a "paintball gun".
"I walked in and there was my baby, lying there, bleeding," the young mother told NBC News.
"I had just hugged him in my arms five minutes before that."
The incident happened at the Missouri home of Mrs Weiderholt's father. She had been visiting with her two sons.
When police arrived, they realised that the wound left on the infant's head was in fact caused by a .22 caliber Magnum revolver.
According to Sheriff Darren White, Mrs Wiederholt's 5-year-old son (who has not been named) discovered his grandfather's revolver near a bed and fired a shot at his baby brother.
Mrs Wiederholt said she had no idea that her father had kept loaded weapons in his home.
"We got some guys that work here that have little kids of their own... This kind of hits home with them, too. They take it personally," said the sheriff.
Police said no foul play was suspected and that investigations are ongoing.
Mrs Wiederholt hopes that her experience will act as a warning to others to keep firearms away from children.
Source: NBC News, Metro, CNN
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