10-year-old fatally shot himself in North Philadelphia, police say

A 10-year-old North Philadelphia boy died Saturday night after shooting himself once in the head, Philadelphia police said.

The shooting, just before 6 p.m., is thought to have been accidental. Philadelphia Police Captain Lee Strollo said the boy was in a house on West Pacific Street with an 8-year-old girl but no adults.

“Supposedly, there was a gun inside a cabinet that the children located,” he said.

An investigation is underway to determine who owns the gun and why it was left unlocked, Strollo said.

After the boy was hit, the 8-year-old girl ran outside to get a neighbor’s help.

“Very traumatic,” Strollo said. “Hopefully she’ll get any help that she needs.”

The boy was taken by ambulance to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, where he was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m., a hospital spokesperson said.

“Another one of our precious children has died as the result of gunfire,” Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said in a emailed statement. “As a community, we must all strive to do better in keeping guns out of the hands of our kids.”

The shooting came after four others earlier in the weekend, with six people struck by gunfire Friday night and early Saturday morning — one of whom died.

A 27-year-old man was shot in the head just before 8 p.m. Friday in the 1400 block of Windrim Avenue in the city’s Logan section. He died an hour-and-a-half later at Albert Einstein Medical Center.