/ CBS/AP
3-year-old boy fatally shot in Allentown identified by Lehigh County Coroner's Office
An eastern Pennsylvania man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 3-year-old boy who authorities say shot himself with a handgun left unattended, marking the latest in a string of accidental shootings involving young children.
Jose Hilario Abreu, 28, of Allentown was arraigned Friday on the charge as well as two counts of child endangerment in the March 28 death of Elijah Abreu Borgen. Prosecutors said the child was rushed to Lehigh Valley Hospital Cedar Crest but died of a gunshot wound to the torso; his death was ruled accidental.
Lehigh County prosecutors accuse Abreu of leaving the semi-automatic handgun unattended and fully loaded with a live cartridge in the chamber while the victim and a 2-year-old child were present.
Prosecutors allege that Abreu said he placed the gun under the sofa the two toddlers were sitting on and left the room, then heard a loud bang and returned to find Elijah with a gunshot wound to the chest. Prosecutors said that when the gun discharged, it "was unholstered and resting atop of a pillow on the couch where both toddlers were sitting."
Prosecutors said a rapid gunshot residue test performed after the child's death yielded a "presumptive positive indication" of gunshot residue on his hands.
Abreu was taken to Lehigh County jail pending arraignment scheduled for Friday; court documents indicate that he is being represented by the county public defender's office, which could not be reached for comment over the weekend.
The incident follows other fatal shootings involving young children across the U.S. in recent months.
In February, a 2-year-old boy died hours after an accidental shooting in Indianapolis, and a 3-year-old fatally shot himself in the head after finding a gun in his North Carolina home. That same month, a woman died after a toddler in her car pulled the trigger of a gun in a Tennessee shopping center parking lot.
In January, the parents of a 3-year-old toddler who shot and killed his 2-year-old brother were charged with manslaughter in Kentucky.
Last November, a 2-year-old boy was accidentally shot and killed by his brother with an unsecured firearm in Gary, Indiana.
Hundreds of children have been killed while playing with guns over the past two decades, according to data from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in December. A majority of these deaths happened while children were playing in an apartment or home – more than 50% of the deaths were in the child's own house.
A 2023 report released by the nonprofit Everytown For Gun Safety says that safe storage procedures and laws can help reduce America's unintentional shootings. At the beginning of 2024, 26 states had some form of gun-safe storage or child access prevention laws. For children between the ages of zero to five years old, more than half died from self-inflicted gunshots, and more than half of the children accidentally killed by another were under 10 years old, according to the nonprofit.