Chicago Man in Custody After Toddler Shoots Himself

A toddler's fatal shooting on Chicago's South Side has led to the arrest of a 31-year-old man, as police investigate how a gun ended up in the hands of a 2-year-old. Authorities say the boy, identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office as Jamonte Shaw, somehow accessed a firearm inside a home in the city's Pullman neighborhood on Sunday afternoon and shot himself, WLS-TV reports. Jamonte was taken to Comer Children's Hospital in critical condition and later died, reports the Chicago-Sun Times.

Detectives and evidence technicians are still working to determine how the weapon was stored and how the child reached it. No charges have been announced, and police have not disclosed the man's relationship to the boy. Community advocates called for tighter gun safety in homes. "We can't keep losing our babies because of some adult things," Pastor Donovan Price said, calling for gun locks, safety kits, and more vigilant supervision. "We got to be proactive or pray active," he said.