HOUSTON — An accidental shooting led to the death of two children, leaving neighbors and family members in shock.
Police said an 11-year-old boy died and a family friend said that boy's grief-stricken older brother then took his own life.
Houston police said the parents of the kids didn’t know how the gun got into the apartment and that the kids were in a bedroom away from the adults.
Looking at the apartment complex from the outside, you wouldn't be able to tell the tragedy happened there on Wednesday night but talking to people who live there, you get a sense of how devastating it is.
Home for people who live at the Timber Crossing Apartments currently doesn’t bring comfort. Inside one of the units, a painful tragedy unfolded.
"The 17-year-old was showing off his gun to the kids," a family friend who didn’t want to be identified said.
Police said the teen left the gun in a bedroom and left the room. That’s when police said a 14-year-old girl picked it up. Thinking it was unloaded, she pulled the trigger.
"The little kids ... they go and got the gun and it was a little girl, and she shot her sibling and she saw blood everywhere," the family friend said.
Paramedics found the 11-year-old boy shot to death.
The family friend said that tragedy was followed by another. He said the teen, overcome by grief, took the gun and left the apartment.
"So, he goes to the woods and he shoots himself thinking that it was his fault," he said.
People who live in the complex said it’s an important reminder to keep weapons locked up and away from children. But with a tragedy like this, their first thought was grief.
"It's sad. It's the worst thing that can happen to a family -- to lose somebody so young. I cannot explain with words what is happening to the family," Ceci Gomez said in Spanish.
Police said the 14-year-old girl who pulled the trigger wasn’t hurt. So far, there’s no word if anyone could face charges in this case.