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Toddler Shoots Pregnant Mum With Dad's Gun

Toddler Shoots Pregnant Mum With Dad's Gun

The 21-year-old woman was sent to hospital and is still in a critical condition

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

A three-year-old girl shot her pregnant mother in a car park after finding her father's loaded gun in the car, police said.

Shaneque Thomas, 21, was sitting in the front seat of the car outside Plato's Closet in Merrillville, Indiana, when the toddler fired the gun, striking the mother between the chest and shoulder.

The shooting happened at around 4pm on Tuesday in the car park of the used clothes store.

The pregnant woman was sitting in a white saloon with the three-year-old girl while her boyfriend shopped, according to Fox 8.

The girl's one-year-old brother was also in the car.

Shaneque was in the front seat when the little girl fired the gun from the back seat, police said.

A witness, Paloma Preito, said: "What I saw was a lady she was almost about to fall, she was like bleeding out with like a bucket of blood on the ground and I just saw her two kids just standing there."

Employees of Plato's Closet heard screaming and ran out to help.

Hadassah Kirkle, a supervisor at Plato's Closet, told Fox 8: "The boyfriend was inside the store shopping so he ran outside because someone told him that there was a girl bleeding and he was yelling, 'Did you kill yourself? Did you do this to yourself?'.

"There was blood flowing all from her stomach; just coming out like water, like a faucet, and I screamed 'Someone call 911'."

Fox 8

Another employee, Rebecca Todd, explained: "We grabbed the little boy who was still in the car and we took the little girl from the mom because she was holding her hand and we took them inside and just tried comforting them the best we could."

Detective Sergeant, James Bogner, said the girl 'had no idea what she had done and she was very scared'.

Shaneque was taken to a local hospital and then transferred to Loyola University Medical Center where she was listed in critical but stable condition.

Employees took the children inside the store to shield them from the chaos. One told NBC that the little girl had blood on her jacket.

Fox 8

Her boyfriend, identified by police as Menzo Brazien, was inside the thrift store trying on clothes at the time of the shooting.

According to NBC, he is being held on a preliminary charge of child endangerment, the Lake County Sheriff's Department said.

The couple had traveled from their home in Michigan City to get pregnancy care at a Planned Parenthood, according to the Times of Northwest Indiana.

The investigation is ongoing.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Death, Toddler, Mum, News, Dad, US News, US