Lanier said police were on their way to another call from the apartment building a little after 8 p.m. when officers heard the two shots and someone started screaming.
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Police say a 3-year-old girl has been fatally shot in southeast Washington and preliminary information shows that another child may have been playing with a gun when it discharged, striking the girl.
Police have not said whether the gun belonged to someone in the apartment or if it was found elsewhere by the other child.
The toddler, Dalis Cox, was shot by a child identified by neighbors as a 7-year-old boy who had found a gun in the apartment, reports the Washington Post.
The young girl was rushed to the hospital but later died of her injuries. Dalis was pronounced dead late Wednesday.
She added that the gun was not legally registered and police will need to determine how it got into the apartment before any criminal charges can be pursued.
Little Dalis Cox is believed to have been shot twice by a seven-year-old boy in what police have described as an accident. I’m at a real loss.
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Dalis’s mother declined to talk publicly about her daughter or the shooting, and many who visited her Thursday followed suit, asking that they be left alone to mourn.
