A 3-year-old boy was in critical but stable condition Monday evening after suffering a possibly self-inflicted gunshot wound in St. Louis, according to police. The child was privately taken to an area hospital, and officers say the circumstances surrounding how he was hurt remain under investigation.
The incident happened around 8 p.m. on the 3100 block of James Cool Papa Bell, according to the KMOV report. St. Louis Metropolitan Police said the boy was brought to the hospital privately rather than by ambulance, and that his wound was possibly self-inflicted. Child abuse detectives have taken over the investigation, a standard step when a young child is hurt by gunfire.
As of the station's report, no additional details had been released about how the shooting happened, who else was present, or who had access to the firearm involved. The outlet noted that no further information was available at the time of publication.
A Pattern Seen Before in the St. Louis Area
This is not the first time a St. Louis-area toddler has been hospitalized after a shooting involving a young child. In August, St. Ann police said a 3-year-old accidentally shot themselves at a home on St. Dolores Drive, with officers responding around 12:11 a.m. to a report of an accidental shooting, the station reported. In that case, a man named Silas Brown was arrested and charged with one felony count of endangering the welfare of a child, creating a substantial risk, and was held on a $75,000 bond.
A separate case cited by Everytown involved a 2-year-old in Ferguson who suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound after getting hold of an unsecured firearm, according to Everytown. The gun violence prevention group's research has repeatedly flagged Missouri as a hotspot for these incidents.
Missouri Ranks Among the Worst Nationally
Everytown's data shows Missouri ranked fourth nationally for unintentional shootings by children, recording 129 such shootings between 2015 and 2023. Nationwide, the group's database tracked more than 3,200 shootings by children over that same span, resulting in more than 1,200 deaths and more than 2,000 injuries, with more than seven in ten of those incidents occurring in or around homes.
The group also found that 2023 was the worst year on record since it began tracking the data in 2015, with 411 incidents, 270 injuries and 427 total victims. Separately, the Kansas City Star reported that Missouri has the fifth highest rate of injury and death from unintentional child shootings nationally, with an Everytown tracker at the time recording at least 96 such shootings in the state, resulting in 42 deaths and 67 injuries. That same report noted unintentional shooting deaths by children rose more than 30% during the pandemic in 2020, and a study of more than 2,000 incidents from 2015 to 2020 found that shootings by children most often also involved child victims and usually happened at home.
Federal data adds further context to how young these victims often are. The CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System identified 1,262 unintentional firearm injury deaths among children aged 0 to 17, with the largest share occurring among children aged 11 to 15, followed closely by children aged 0 to 5.
No charges have been announced in connection with Monday's shooting, and police have not released further details about the investigation. Child abuse detectives continue to look into exactly what happened on James Cool Papa Bell.
