A man had placed his gun down somewhere in his Pompano Beach home before his 2-year-old niece found it and fatally shot herself over the weekend, sources said.
Luis Appolon, 33, was arrested Saturday and now faces manslaughter charges after Broward Sheriff’s Deputies found the child with an apparent gunshot wound at his home on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The toddler later died at the hospital.
A source with BSO told NBC6 that Appolon was the child's uncle. She hasn't been identified.
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“Obviously horrific," retired police captain Michael D’Angelo said. "There should never be a scenario where a child that age has access to a firearm."
D'Angelo investigated similar tragic cases during his time as an officer in South Miami.
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He urges parents to make sure their firearms are kept safely away from children.
“Gun locks, we’re talking about safes, these are all designed to be a combination of safe and secure, but also readily accessible for the home defense aspects of owning a firearm," he said.
D'Angelo said if you have young children in your home, a gun safe helps keep the gun secure, but you can still get to it quickly.
“It keeps the firearm secure in case the house is burglarized, and secure and out of the hands of people they shouldn’t be in, children," he said. "Yet still gives accessibility to the homeowner.”
He says educating your children about gun safety is also key, as they get older.
“The minute you can start replacing some of these hardware security devices with the education piece the better, to get that point across," he said. "But if you don’t think your child is ready to understand firearm safely and what goes with it, keep using the security devices until you reach that age.”
