A South Carolina toddler is dead after reportedly mistaking a pink handgun for a toy.
Police responded to a call about a shooting at Haywood Plantation Apartments in Greenville, S.C., at 7:30 p.m. Friday night, the Associated Press reported. There, officers found 3-year-old Temorej Smith dead from a single gunshot wound to the head.
On Monday, police reported that the shooting occurred while Smith and his 7-year-old sister were in a bedroom at home, playing with a pink handgun they might have thought was a toy, according to CBS local affiliate WCSC.
"If you have guns, if you own guns mostly we would prefer you have them in a lock box," Johnathan Bragg of the Greenville Police Department told the news station. "At least have them out of the reach of children."
Smith lived in the apartment with his parents, grandparents and sister. The parents were not home at the time of the shooting, the county's deputy coroner Jeff Fowler told Greenville Online.
The shooting has been ruled an accident. No charges have been filed yet, but the investigation is ongoing.
After the tragedy, Jack Logan, a local activist and founder of "Put Down the Guns Young People," handed out gun locks to citizens at a Burger King down the road from where the shooting occurred, according to WCSC.
Additionally, the local police department is stressing the importance of gun safety. Gun locks are now available at the station at 4 McGee Street, reports Fox Carolina.
This is not the only such tragedy in recent months. On Christmas Day, 2-year-old Sincere Smith of Conway, S.C., was killed after shooting his father's loaded handgun he found on the living room table.