Cleveland, OH(CNN) — The 2-year-old son of a Cleveland police officer fatally shot himself with his father’s service weapon Friday morning, police said in a statement.
Officers responded to a home on Library Avenue about 10:30 a.m. and took the child to MetroHealth Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
It was the toddler’s older brother who ran into the street, pleading for help, a neighbor told CNN affiliate WJW.
“(He) was saying ‘somebody call the police … my brother shot himself,'” Sonya Hobbs said. “When I went in there, I saw that baby — he was only 2 years old — laying on the floor.”
The boy’s father has been with the department since 1993. Police have not publicly identified him.
CNN reached out to the police and the county medical examiner’s office, and both declined to release the boy’s name.
Police officers, like citizens, are required to secure all weapons. According to the Cleveland police Manual of Rules, section 5.13, “officers shall use or handle their firearms only in a safe, proper, and authorized manner.”
Police are investigating.
