Boy, 2, dies after shooting himself as parents shopped for fireworks in car park
A two-year-old boy has died after accidentally shooting himself in the head in a Walmart parking lot as his parents shopped for fireworks.
Nakyzi Odums’ parents left him alone in their vehicle on the afternoon before the Fourth of July as they went to purchase fireworks at a nearby stand, reported WALB.
Witnesses said that his parents heard a gunshot and ran to their car and found him with a wound in the chest.
The toddler was rushed to a hospital in Douglas, Georgia, and then to a trauma center in another state.
On Saturday, the Douglas Police Department wrote on Facebook that it ‘regrets to inform the community that the young child who suffered an accidental self inflicted gunshot wound on July 3, 2024, has sadly passed away this afternoon’ at the trauma center in Jacksonville, Florida.
‘Authorities are continuing their investigation to determine the exact circumstances surrounding the incident,’ wrote the police department.
‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time.’
A GoFundMe page for burial expenses shared ‘with great sadness’ the ‘loss of our beautiful’ Nakyzi.
‘He was definitely the light and love for his parents Sam Odums and Laileighauna Parks,’ wrote his grandmother Candi Brinson on the fundraiser.
‘He smiled brightly, wholeheartedly, loved unconditionally.’
It was not immediately known if the parents will face any charges in connection with the fatal shooting. There were no indications they have been arrested.
Douglas Police Chief Brannen Pruette told The Independent: ‘You’re allowed to have a gun in the car, but when there’s a child involved, you need to make sure that the gun is secure so that the child doesn’t have access to it.’
The GoFundMe page to help the parents amid their grieving had raised more than $1,600 as of Monday evening.
Nakyzi died more than three-and-a-half years after another two-year-old boy accidentally shot himself dead with a handgun as his mother fed her baby daughter in another room in Indiana.
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