Oh No! Father Charged As 6-year-old Boy Accidentally Shoots 3-year-old Brother to Death

 

NBC Chicago reports that at about 9:05 p.m., the 6-year-old grabbed a loaded revolver on top of the refrigerator in his home in the 1000 block of North Francisco and then accidentally shot his 3-year-old brother in the head while they played a game of "cops and robbers"

The boys' grandfather found the 3-year-old, identified as Eian Santiago, after the 6-year-old ran upstairs to him to say his brother had been shot.

"The father must have had a gun in the house, but I never knew it," Israel Lasalle, the grandfather, said.

Family members took the younger boy to Norwegian American Hospital. He was later transported in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died shortly before midnight Sunday.

The boys' father, Michael Santiago, was charged Sunday with one felony count of child endangerment/death for "knowingly" storing the loaded gun in the house and making it accessible to his children. Santiago had shown the 6-year-old where the gun was stored last week, but he told him only adults should use it, according to prosecutors.

Santiago, a former gang member, told police he got the gun from another gang member and used it for "protection," according to Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. His record consists of only misdemeanor charges, including a theft in 2010.

In court Sunday, Santiago was ordered held on $75,000 bond.

An attorney for Santiago could not be immediately reached.