Mom shot dead by 3-year-old son while changing daughter’s diaper
A 26-year-old mother has lost her life after being accidentally shot in the head by her 3-year-old son in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
KJRH reports that Christa Engles was changing her 1-year-old daughter’s diaper when her son found a 9mm semiautomatic handgun in an open holster on a low-lying table. Engles, who lived with her mom, husband and two kids, was home alone with her two children at the time of the tragedy.
Engles was taken to a hospital when her mom arrived at the home and discovered her grandchildren covered in blood and her daughter “in the front room of the house as if she was changing the 1-year-old’s diaper.”
The son tried to leave the home before his grandmother arrived. When interviewed by children specialists the boy “confirmed what the evidence led investigators to assume.”
Tulsa Police Sgt. David Walker said, “We think this is a horrible, horrible accident. The neighbors, family, co-workers, and church family quickly gathered around this family in support of them during this terrible time.”
The Daily News reports that Engles’ husband, Brian Engles – a truck driver, arrived at the home hours later. In a post via Facebook he later wrote, “I lost my wife to an accident yesterday. Don’t forget to tell your loved ones they are loved. You really never know when the last ‘I love you’ is really the last.”