A four-year-old boy has shot dead a six-year-old playmate in the North Carolina town of Greensboro, police said yesterday.
They said Carlos Gilmer was shot in the neck on Saturday, his birthday, after the children found a loaded .38-calibre, semi-automatic handgun in a handbag lying around the house.
The younger boy's grandmother, Mrs Beulah Lindsay, who cared for the children and was godmother to Carlos, was stringing a "Happy Birthday" sign upstairs while the boys were downstairs playing, Greensboro Police Sgt D.J. Cunane said.
Police would not say who owned the gun, but were investigating whether to file misdemeanour charges against the owner for leaving a loaded weapon where a child could find it.
A local child, Xavier Bailey, interviewed by television reporters, said: "This should be a lesson to all kids, that little kids should not get hold of guns."
The country is still trying to recover from the shock of the shootings last month in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in which four children and one teacher died. Two young boys have been charged with murder.
Yesterday a 14-year-old boy was charged with shooting his teacher dead at a school dance in Pennsylvania.