Toddler Dies After Shooting Himself In The Face

A Texas toddler is dead after accidentally shooting himself in the face with a 9 mm handgun.

Trenton Mathis went looking for gum through a bedroom door that had been left ajar, the 2-year-old’s great grandmother, Carolyn, said. Trenton got on the bed and found the handgun on a nightstand. The toddler shot himself and was airlifted to a hospital in Tyler, but later died from his injuries.

Trenton and two of his siblings were living with the great grandmother and her husband. They had been placed in the home — which had been deemed unsafe by Child Protective Services — last year after suffering abuse and neglect at their parents’ home. The other children were removed from the home by CPS , but it wasn’t immediately clear whether charges would be filed against the great grandparents, who were present for the shooting.

A judge ruled against a CPS recommendation that the children be placed somewhere other than the great grandparents house at a custody hearing.

A similar unfortunate incident took place, also in Texas, just a couple of weeks ago. Kinsler Davis, another 2-year-old boy, shot himself in the head with his family’s handgun. Kinsler, who was named after Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler, would have celebrated his third birthday next month. The toddler’s father was a former firearms store manager and kept a gun in the house because of a previous break-in. The father also thought he had put the gun away, but there was no safety lock on the trigger.

Police were trying to determine whether the case should be taken to a grand jury, and Police Chief Randy S. Bratton said the department could list “making a firearm accessible to a child” as a possible charge. But a neighbor said that the father had already suffered the ultimate punishment by losing his son.

Do you think the great grandparents of Trenton Mathis should face charges in his death?