Father Charged In Accidental Shooting Death Of Boy, 3

CHICAGO — A 3-year-old boy is dead and his father is charged in what police are calling an accidental shooting on Chicago's South Side. Police responded to the 9600 block of S. Escanaba at 4:15 p.m. Sunday to find the critically injured child with a gunshot wound to his face.

The child, identified as Mikah Davis, was taken to Advocate Trinity Hospital, where he was pronounced dead later Sunday.

On Monday night, police announced charges against the boy's father, 29-year-old Ronald Davis. The father was taken into custody roughly an hour after the boy was shot and accused of knowingly leaving a loaded gun in a place where the child could access it.

Ronald Davis is charged with placing a child in circumstances that endangered the child’s life and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, police said. Both charges are felonies. He is due in bond court on Tuesday.

Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, who called the shooting "devastating," said family members were in another room when they heard a gunshot and rushed in to find the child with a gun.

"We extend our deepest condolences as detectives continue to investigate," Guglielmi said. "DCFS has also been called in to assist."