4-Yo Shoots Toddler on Thanksgiving, Parents Charged

Local Editor

Thanksgiving ended in criminal charges for one Philadelphia couple after their four-year-old shot his two-year-old cousin with a .40 caliber handgun. The injured boy is in critical condition.

The two children were playing in the living room at the family's house in North Philadelphia when the tragic accident happened shortly before Thanksgiving dinner.

The toddler's four-year-old cousin was playing with a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun found in the house when he fired it.

"The mother was preparing Thanksgiving dinner when the two kids were playing with the gun," Chief Inspector Scott Small told reporters, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

According to neighbor Sonia Pizarro, she saw police cars outside the house at around 5:00pm.

As she relayed to the news outlet, the father ran outside in tears, screaming, "my baby, my baby, my baby."

The two-year-old boy was taken to Temple University Hospital, but transferred to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, where he was listed as being in a critical but stable condition.

The parents were identified as Rachel Santiago, 34, and Omar Laboy-Vega, also 34. As witnesses told the Philadelphia Inquirer, the couple has three children.

The landlord of the rowhouse where the family lived reportedly said that they rented the place for about two years. However, he refused to provide further details, saying that he did not hear about the shooting.

Both parents were charged with endangering the welfare of a child, while the father is also facing charges of illegal possession of a weapon as two guns were retrieved from the house.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team