ST. LOUIS – A Florissant man is facing a child endangerment charge after his girlfriend’s toddler son accidentally shot himself in the head with the man’s unattended gun.
The incident happened around 12:50 p.m. on Aug. 31, in the 900 block of Melvin Drive in the Baden neighborhood. Police arrived to find 21-month-old Khori Patterson suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.
Patterson was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators learned the boy’s mother and her boyfriend, Donnell Straughter, were asleep in their bed with the child in the minutes prior to the shooting. The child got up, climbed out of bed, and found Straughter’s gun, which he’d left on a TV stand in another room.
The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office charged both Straughter and the boy’s mother, Alea Little, one count of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child (death of a child).