Missouri couple charged after toddler shoots himself in head

ST. LOUIS (AP) -A couple from Missouri has been charged with child endangerment after a 21-month-old St. Louis boy found a gun that had been left down on a television stand and fatally shot himself in the head.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that prosecutors say the boy’s mother Alea Little, 24, and her boyfriend Donnell Straughter, 30, were lying in bed when Khori Patterson crawled out of bed on Aug. 31 and left the room.

Court documents say Little told investigators that a few minutes later she heard a gunshot and found Khori slumped over in a pool of blood.

Little told police that she knew the gun was where Khori could reach it and neither she nor Straughter moved it.