ELMO, Mo., Jan. 20 (UPI) -- A 5-year-old boy shot his baby brother in the head while playing with a loaded revolver, police in northwest Missouri said.
Nodaway County Sheriff Darren White said a child fatality review team will decide if the parents of the two boys should face charges.
White said the shooting appeared to be an accident. But the parents could face charges for failing to keep a gun away from their children.
The shooting occurred Monday morning in the family home in Elmo, Mo. The mother first told police the baby had been shot with a paintball gun, but police found a .22 caliber revolver near the baby's crib.
The baby was pronounced dead about 3 hours after the 9 a.m. shooting at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
Police said the parents kept the revolver on a shelf in the headboard of their bed.
Kathy Armentrout called her neighbors a "very good family." She said she immediately took their three surviving children, the 5-year-old and two boys aged 3 and about 18 months, to her house.
"They're not very old so they have no clue what was happening, you know," said Arementrout.
