‘A LOSS FOR WORDS’

Arkansas 5-Year-Old Shoots His 8-Year-Old Brother Dead, Sheriff Says

The sheriff said the boys’ mother was woken up by the gunshot and found her son on the floor.

A 5-year-old in Arkansas fatally shot his 8-year-old brother by accident on Thursday afternoon, Jefferson County Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr. said. Woods told THV11 that it appears the boys’ mother was sleeping but woke up to the sound of a gunshot and found her son on the floor. Four other siblings were in the house at the time, Woods said, and authorities are doing a welfare check on them. He said he was at “a loss for words right now,” especially because the tragedy “could have been avoided” if the gun was stored properly. “Gun owners that do not properly secure their firearms are just one split second away from one of these tragedies happening in their home,” he said in a release.