Melanie Hayes, in the Indy Star, has an article about a 5 year old boy who shot and killed his 4 year old sister.
Makayla died Sunday morning after her 5-year-old brother shot her while playing with a handgun, police said.
Vensko wants her daughter to be dressed in her favorite color when she is buried.
“That’s my snuggle bunny,” she said.
. . .
According to police, the brother had pulled a chair up to a bookcase in the downstairs living room and taken his father’s handgun from the top shelf. There was no magazine in the pistol, but a round was in the chamber.“The 5-year-old took the gun upstairs to play, and there pointed the gun at his sister and pulled the trigger,” the statement said.
. . .
Vensko wasn’t allowed to see Makayla at the scene, but she was able to see the other two children before they were placed in the care of Child Protective Services.“He seems like he’s doing OK,” Vensko said of Makayla’s brother. “He told me what happened, what he did. But I know he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t know Makayla is gone.”
One thing I wasn’t fully prepared for when I became a parent was how you start to internalize stories like this. At some visceral level, the boy and the girl in that story become my kids. It’s hard to keep a sense of perspective about all of the various dangers that could (but probably won’t) snatch your kids away from you at any time.
I’m with you on internalizing the news with your kids in mind, Doug. I have a hard time watching news stories with child victims, because the ability to substitute my kids for the victims is too great, and my empathy for the children leaves me enraged at the adults.
Our oldest son fell out a window on the 12th floor of a hotel in Florida about five years ago. It was at a wedding reception and the dumbass photographer had opened a floor level window to let in air. The hotel staff asked her to close the window, but no one checked to see if it was locked. Later on my son was leaning against this window and it opened. (Mind you we had no idea there were windows that could even open). Fortunately there was a two extension/ledge outside the window that stopped him from falling to the ground. Any time I hear about a kid falling out a window I think about how close we came to losing our son.
This also caused a rift with my wife’s aunt (the bride) because she never understood why I was in the middle of her reception yelling at the photographer-and not very pastorally at that. But that’s another story…
Also we were fortunate that my brother-in-law heard my wife yell and he jumped down and pulled my son back into safety. I was feeding our second oldest a bottle when this happened.