A 6-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his 3-year-old
brother while playing "cops and robbers" with a gun their father told
investigators he had obtained illegally from a gang member, Chicago police said
Sunday. Police said the two boys were playing Saturday evening when the
older boy reached on top of the refrigerator and grabbed the loaded handgun and
then accidentally shot 3-year-old Eian Santiago in the face. The boy was rushed
to a hospital, where he died later that night. Police subsequently
arrested the boys' father, 25-year-old Michael Santiago, on a felony child
endangerment charge.
During a court hearing
on Sunday, Assistant state's Attorney Joseph DiBella said that Santiago bought
the gun off the street, kept it "wrapped in pajama pants on top of the
refrigerator" and even showed the boy where the gun was. "He
kept the gun for protection because he was a former gang member who snitched on
a gang member in a murder trial," the Chicago Tribune reported DiBella as
saying in court. Santiago had told police about the gun in a videotaped
confession, DiBella said.
Judge James Brown set Santiago's bail at $75,000. Santiago was
represented by the county's public defender's office. The office was closed on
Sunday and could not be reached for comment.
Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the case tragically
illustrates a point he has been making for years about how a major cause of
much of Chicago's violent crime is the flood of illegal guns into the
city. "It's real simple," McCarthy said in a telephone interview
with The Associated Press on Sunday.
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