A 4-year-old boy was shot and killed by his 4-year-old female cousin while they were playing with a gun , Detroit police said . The shooting happened Thursday in a home on the city 's west side . There were three children -- all cousins -- at the home at the time of the incident , said Detroit Deputy Chief Rodney Johnson . The third child was 5 , he said . Detroit Police Public Information Officer Adam Madera said the children found a `` long gun '' under a bed , pulled it out and began to play with it . `` At this time , although it 's early in the investigation , this appears to be a tragic accident , '' Madera said . There was an adult present in the house , but that person was a family friend and unrelated to the children , Johnson said . `` It 's too early to say if charges will be filed in this case , '' Johnson said . This is the latest incident involving children who accidentally shoot someone or die of a self-inflicted gunshot wound . In October , a babysitter in Vidor , Texas , was charged after her 5-year-old charge fatally shot himself with her gun , police said . Two weeks earlier , a 2-year-old girl fatally shot herself in Fayetteville , North Carolina , and the toddler 's father faced involuntary manslaughter charges , police said . In New Orleans , a 5-year-old girl died June 23 after she came into contact with a .38-caliber revolver and accidentally shot herself in the head while her mother was at a store , police said . Last August , a 3-year-old boy in Dundee , Michigan , found a .40-caliber handgun belonging to a family friend on a closet floor in his home . He died after accidentally shooting himself in the head , police said . A study of Colorado trauma center data found a surprising number of children were being injured , many of them seriously , by guns . According to the Centers for Disease Control 's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control , 703 children under the age of 15 died in accidental firearms deaths between 2001 and 2010 , the latest year for which data are available . During the same period , 7,766 children under the age of 14 suffered accidental firearm injuries .
4-year-old girl fatally shoots 4-year-old cousin , police say . The girl, who was not identified by police, shot her 5-year-old cousin, a boy named Jayden Smith, in the head with an air rifle at their home on Friday afternoon, according to police. Police say incident appears to be tragic accident .