A toddler was found with a loaded firearm inside a Canton Township daycare on Monday, prompting an arrest and an investigation that police say is still working to determine how the child got hold of the weapon in the first place. Staff at the center discovered the gun, took it from the child and immediately called police, according to officials. No one was hurt.
Officers responded to Children’s World’s Early Learning Center at 7437 Sheldon Road on Sept. 28, according to the Detroit Free Press. That address matches the location named by Patch, and Fox 2 Detroit also identified the daycare as Children’s World Early Learning Center on Sheldon Road. The gun was holstered when staff discovered it, and they removed it from the child before dialing 911, per the same Free Press account.
A parent was arrested in connection with the incident, but police have not released that person's name because the individual has not yet been arraigned, the report notes. One of the toddler's parents works as a police officer with a neighboring jurisdiction, but that parent is not the one taken into custody, according to the same account. Canton Township police officers collected the firearm from the scene Monday morning, according to CBS Detroit.
Investigators Still Piecing Together How the Gun Got There
Police are still trying to determine how the toddler ended up with the gun, the same report states. Investigators had not yet established who owns the firearm, per CBS Detroit, and the case is expected to be forwarded to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office for a charging decision.
Canton Police Chief Joseph Bialy said the department considers the outcome fortunate given the circumstances. “We are incredibly fortunate that no one was injured during this incident,” he said, according to the Free Press. Police also said there is no ongoing threat associated with the incident, and the Canton Police Department has said it remains committed to thoroughly investigating weapons-related offenses, per its statement carried by CBS Detroit.
The daycare has since cut ties with the family involved. The family has since been disenrolled from the center, according to ClickOnDetroit.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Unsecured Guns Reaching Kids
The Canton case follows a similar scare in Battle Creek less than a week earlier, when an 8-year-old third grader brought a gun to Ann J. Kellogg Elementary and it discharged inside the student's backpack in a hallway on Sept. 22, according to WWMT. No one was hurt in that incident either. The same report notes that the Oakland County Sheriff's Office investigated a case in which a 3-year-old Pontiac boy was shot in the head after his parents told investigators they knew the gun responsible was unsecured in a basement.
Research on firearm access underscores why these cases keep surfacing. More than one-third of adolescents in a firearm-owning household report being able to access a loaded gun within five minutes, according to the University of Michigan School of Public Health. The same research found that safe storage of firearms and ammunition is associated with a 78% lower risk of self-inflicted firearm injuries and an 85% lower risk of unintentional firearm injuries among children.
Michigan law addresses that gap directly. Under Public Act 17 of 2023, an individual who stores or leaves a firearm unattended on premises under their control, while knowing or reasonably expected to know that a minor is or is likely to be present, is required to take specified precautions, according to the Michigan Legislature. Canton police have not said whether the firearm involved in Monday's case was legally owned or how it was stored beforehand, and that detail remains part of the ongoing investigation.
