3-year-old girl shot in head at East Germantown home

A 3-year-old girl was in extremely critical condition Saturday evening after being shot in the right eye at a home in East Germantown earlier in the day, police said.

Police told The Inquirer that the girl found her father’s unsecured gun and shot herself. The bullet had entered her right eye, and exited her left eye, according to police sources with knowledge of the shooting who did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it.

The wounded girl was driven in a private vehicle to Einstein Medical Center about 1:15 p.m., police said. The child was flown to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, police said.

Investigators recovered a gun inside the home on the 500 block of East Chelten Avenue, and police took a man into custody for questioning, said Cpl. Jasmine Reilly, a spokesperson for the department.

The girl was the second child shot at a Philadelphia home in nine days.

On March 28, a 4-year-old girl in Northwest Philadelphia was hospitalized in stable condition after she accidentally shot herself while playing with a gun she found in a relative’s bedroom. Police interviewed three adults, including the girl’s mother, who were in the home at the time. It is unknown whether any arrests were made in that case.

According to police, 29 children under the age of 18 have been shot in Philadelphia in 2024, six of them fatally.

Staff reporter Emily Bloch contributed to this article.