An Alabama father died after he shot himself and his daughter when he reached into a diaper bag and accidentally fired the gun lying inside. The incident happened in the parking lot of a Chuck E. Cheese, pizza parlor in Vestavia Hills, on April 13.
Jefferson County coroner’s office said on Tuesday that 22-year-old Timothy Roshun Smith Jr. has died, according to a statement by the police.
The father, was in the back seat of a vehicle when he reached for the bag sitting on the floor, Vestavia Hills Police Department spokesman Capt. Johnny Evans said.
He was declared dead at the hospital at 2:10 p.m. on Monday.
People present at the scene felt concerned particularly about their children’s well being when they heard the gunshot.
John and Ashley Gerrard, of Bessemer, were at the Chuck E. Cheese’s with their 2-year-old daughter when the shooting happened.
“You don’t expect anyone would bring a gun around where kids would be. It just doesn’t make any sense,” John Gerrard told WBRC.
Ashley Gerrard said she was very scared. “When you think about someone else’s child being shot, you don’t want yours to be. Anything can happen, anywhere,” she said.
Gerrard family said going out with the family has become like a gamble. “You never can tell anywhere you go. It’s like flipping a coin,” said John Gerrard.
In another accidental shooting case that happened on March 19, a Michigan man throwing a shoe containing a loaded gun at a cockroach by chance shot himself in the foot.
The victim’s name was not disclosed in the report.
Detroit police responded to the incident, which took place in the 18700 block of Albion Street on Tuesday, March 19, at the home of the wheelchair-bound man.
Citing police sources, WDIV reported that when the man threw the shoe at the bug, a loaded revolver that had been stashed inside fell out and discharged.
A bullet then hit the man in the foot.
