Overview
- Police say the mother left five children unattended in a parked vehicle outside businesses at Gratiot and Harper.
- Detectives have not determined whether the girl shot herself or was shot by another child, or where the firearm was inside the car.
- The child was fatally struck in the head, and relatives were taken to a hospital, according to authorities.
- Officers report this was the third child-access shooting with an unsecured gun in Detroit within about a week.
- Michigan’s safe-storage law requires unattended firearms to be unloaded and locked when minors are present, with potential felony penalties, and police and advocates urge use of free gun locks as data show unintentional child shootings fell in 2025.