Sheriff: Toddler, 3, unintentionally shot in head by brother, 6, in Marion Co.

MARION COUNTY, Miss. (WDAM) - A three-year-old is in the hospital in critical condition after being shot in Marion County on Thursday night.

According to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were dispatched to a reported shooting on Ratliff Loop in the Expose community at 8 p.m.

On the scene, deputies found a 3-year-old girl with a gunshot wound to the head. The child was airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson for treatment.

Investigators learned that the girl and her 6-year-old brother were being cared for by their grandmother while their mother was working.

According to MCSO, the brother came across a loaded firearm while looking for candy in the grandmother’s bedroom. While playing with the gun, he unintentionally shot his sister.

The three-year-old is currently in ICU and is in critical condition.

“Tragic examples like this remind us of the importance to secure firearms in the home and out of reach from children,” said Marion County Sheriff Berkley Hall.

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