Boy, 5, reportedly shoots himself to death, the KC area’s 11th such shooting since 2013

A 5-year-old boy died early Sunday after he reportedly shot himself inside an apartment in south Kansas City.

Police responded to the shooting shortly before 1:15 a.m. at an apartment in the 9600 block of Lydia Avenue, according to Kansas City police. The child was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The child’s father was at home at the time of the shooting and called police.

Crime scene investigators were still on the scene Sunday morning. The silent apartments were bordered by yellow police tape and a row of police vehicles.

The shooting was at least the third unintentional shooting by a child in the Kansas City area this year and at least the 11th since 2013.

Shootings over the past two years include:

▪ On July 21, 2017, a 10-year-old boy was hospitalized after shooting himself in the leg when he found a gun left in a house near 23rd Street and Poplar Avenue in Kansas City.

▪ June 25, 2017, an 8-year-old girl was critically wounded when she was shot in the head by a juvenile on a playground at 20th Street and Park Tower Road in Kansas City.

▪ Nov. 4, 2016, a 1-year-old boy, Antonio Rucker Jr., died when he was shot apparently unintentionally in his mother’s vehicle in the parking lot outside a Kansas City, Kan., pizza restaurant at 9500 State Avenue.

▪ Oct. 27, 2016, 3-year-old Jermone L. Green was shot and killed unintentionally by his 5-year-old brother in a townhouse in the 1800 block of Topping Avenue in Kansas City.

▪ April 21, 2016, 2-year-old Sha’Quille Kornegay found an unattended gun that was loaded and shot herself in the head and died in her family’s home in the 2600 block of Lawn Avenue in Kansas City.

▪ Jan. 18, 2016, a 4-year-old girl shot herself in the leg after she found a loaded gun her grandmother had hidden under a couch cushion in their Grandview home.

Kansas City and Missouri have gained national attention in recent years for the number of child-related shootings.

Nationally, Sunday morning’s shooting in south Kansas City was at least the 162nd unintentional shooting by a child in 2017, according to the gun safety awareness organization Everytown For Gun Safety’s #NotAnAccident Index.

The organization counted 264 shootings nationwide in 2016 and 278 in 2015.

This story was originally published August 6, 2017 at 7:09 AM with the headline "Boy, 5, reportedly shoots himself to death, the KC area’s 11th such shooting since 2013."