Rio Carrington: 2-year-old boy fatally shot himself after finding gun in his teenage brother’s room
ARLINGTON, TEXAS: A two-year-old boy, named Rio Carrington, fatally shot himself with a gun that he found in his older brother’s room. The shooting took place on early Tuesday, April 4, at 12.30 am, at a home in the 5300 block of Pocassett Drive in south Arlington.
According to CBS News, when police and paramedics arrived, they found a woman holding her son with a gunshot wound. Sgt Courtney White with the Arlington Police Department said, as stated by Fox 4, "When officers arrived on scene, they located the The child was transported to a local hospital where he was unfortunately pronounced deceased." Two-year-old who had an apparent gunshot wound to the face. Life-saving measures were performed. The child was transported to a local hospital where he was unfortunately pronounced deceased."
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Two-year-old Rio Carrington suffered gunshot wound to face
Sgt White expressed, "It's always a sad and unfortunate situation when a child is injured in any kind of way, so arriving on scene and seeing a child with a gunshot wound to the face is disheartening. It's mentally draining, emotionally draining, and just an overall a bad situation," reports NBC DFW. He added, "A child is dead and a mother is going to have to basically bury her baby because the child located a firearm and harmed himself."
However, this is not the first time. On the night of March 29, a two-year-old girl removed the gun from an unsecured drawer and shot herself in the chest, as per Fox 4. Dana Walraven, who coordinates a gun safety initiative called 'Aim for Safety,' with Cook Children’s Medical Center, said, "In 2022, Cook Children’s treated 45 children for gunshot injuries. Eight of them were fatal, and so this is something we see way too much."
Walraven explained, "We want an open conversation to make sure children are taught how to be safe in a home that may have a gun, or if they’re visiting a home and come across a gun. What should I do? We want kids to stop we want them not to touch. Now if you’re talking about a toddler, they are maybe not going to understand as much of the details, but that again is why we put precautions in place and have them safety locked." And added, "It is really about looking at the numbers of children being injured in the majority of those at home are unintentional. There’s something we can do about that."
'Please lock your handguns up'
On the other hand, Sgt White also requested people to secure their firearms. He said, "Please lock your handguns up. They can get into the wrong hands or they can get into a child's hands, and something this serious and unfortunate can happen. And now, this mom is going to have to bury this young child." He further stressed, "This is easily preventable. We try to tell the public to be good, responsible firearm owners, meaning if your weapon is not in use or not on the firing range, you need to lock it up."
Rio Carrington's GoFundMe
A GoFundMe has been set up to help cover the family’s funeral expenses. The page reads, "Rio you mean the world to us and everyone you touched, having life taken so swiftly away so suddenly it seem so unfair!! But we trust in you god and the prayers of everyone to help us get through this horrible time ..as we ask the public for any help they can so we can send rio off properly we will be very thankful." So far, a total of $1.7K has been raised out of the $10K goal.