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Man charged for leaving gun unattended after child dies in Rock Hill shooting, police say

The victim and another child were playing with the gun when the shooting happened, a Rock Hill Police spokesperson said.

ROCK HILL, S.C. — A Rock Hill man was arrested after a child was accidentally shot and killed by another child while playing with a gun, the Rock Hill Police Department said on Saturday. 

An investigation was launched Friday evening after a child reportedly arrived at a South Carolina hospital with a gunshot wound. Rock Hill Police shared initial details around 10 p.m. 

Officers said the young child arrived at Piedmont Medical Center just before 8 p.m. However, details about where the shooting happened and further information about what happened were not immediately known.

The child died in the hospital in the early morning hours of Sept. 21, police said.

Detectives discovered the shooting had taken place at a home on Barrow Court, where a gun was "left unsecured in the master bedroom of the home allowing children to have access to it," police said. 

The victim and another child were playing with the gun when the shooting happened.

Detectives identified 39-year-old Kunle Lawal Laguda Jr. as the person responsible for leaving the gun in a place where the children could reach it.

Laguda was arrested and taken to Rock Hill Jail where he was charged with "unlawful neglect of a child." Police noted he was not supposed to have a gun at all due to a prior conviction.

Neighbors told WCNC Charlotte this was completely avoidable.

“We don’t need to have children dying because adults aren’t being responsible with their weapons. It’s stupid and sad. I don’t understand it. I would be devastated – God forbid - if one of my children were in that situation,” Frances Hammers told us.

Another neighbor, Rontae Williams, said more could have been done to prevent this. 

“Got to be very careful with the guns. Like you have to have them locked up. I got kids of my own and if that happened to me, I would be devastated,” he said.

Rock Hill is located about 27 miles southwest and across the state line from Charlotte, North Carolina, and about 69 miles north of South Carolina's state capitol of Columbia.

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