The 2-year-old son of a Cleveland police officer fatally shot himself with his father’s service weapon Friday morning, police said.
Officers responded to Officer Jose Pedro’s home at about 10:30 a.m. and took his son to MetroHealth Medical Center, where the boy was pronounced dead.
The toddler’s older brother had run into the street, pleading for help, a neighbor told CNN affiliate WJW.
“(He) was saying ‘somebody call the police … my brother shot himself,'” Sonya Hobbs said. “When I went in there, I saw that baby — he was only 2 years old — laying on the floor.”
Both police and the county medical examiner’s office have declined to release the boy’s name.
Pedro has been with the department since 1993.
Police officers, like citizens, are required to secure all weapons. According to the Cleveland police Manual of Rules, section 5.13, “officers shall use or handle their firearms only in a safe, proper, and authorized manner.”
Police are investigating.