Dad of 3-Year-Old Who Fatally Shot Mom Detained, Likely Faces Charges

The father of a 3-year-old boy in Illinois who accidentally shot and killed his mother with a gun he found in the family's car Saturday evening has been arrested and will likely face firearm-related charges, according to Dolton Police Chief Robert Collins.

Calling the shooting in a Chicago suburb "such a tragedy," Collins said Monday afternoon that it's very likely that the shooting was an accident and that the father, whose name has not been released, did not shoot the woman or even know the child had the gun in the backseat of the car.

Advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety stated that accidental shootings by children under the age of 18 killed 142 people and wounded 242 others in 2020, a trend that increased from 2015 through 2020 as gun sales continued to rise, the Associated Press reported.

Collins said that the child was interviewed by someone who specializes in speaking to children. During the interview, the child allegedly said that he found the gun while sitting in the backseat of the car and fired while playing with it.

"[The child] somehow got ahold of the gun and began playing with it in a playful manner, pointed the gun and fired the shot," Collins said. A bullet struck 22-year-old Daejah Bennett, who was sitting in the passenger seat, in the neck. She was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was later pronounced dead.

Investigators have concluded that the man arrested Monday legally owned the gun, but did not have the concealed carry permit required by law to possess the gun in the car.

Police are working with the state attorney's office in Cook County to determine what charges should be filed against the father, Collins said, adding it would likely be firearm-related charges filed Monday night or Tuesday.

Everytown's #NotAnAccident Index, updated in December 2021, reported at least 2,070 accidental shootings from 2015 through 2020, which resulted in 765 deaths and over 1,300 injuries. Gun sales also surged during that period, increasing over 60 percent in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, as racial and political tensions rose.

The advocacy group also reported that accidental shooting reports were at their highest rates for January through June in the last seven years of Everytown's data, with the number of children living with firearms in their household up to 30 million in 2021, an increase from 7 million in 2015.

The group also cited a national firearm survey conducted in 2021 to estimate that about 4.6 million of those children lived in a home with at least one loaded gun that is not stored behind a lock.

Update 03/14/22, 7:00 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.

Update 03/14/22, 6:34 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information and background.