Leading into the Easter weekend, a 14-year-old girl was shot and killed in what police are calling an accidental shooting.
Fort Worth Police said they responded to a 911 call in the 2100 block of Daniel Street.
When officers arrived, they found a teenage girl with a gunshot wound to the head. She was taken to the hospital but died from her injuries.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office identified the teen as Natavia Lewis.
Police said homicide detectives are interviewing witnesses and the person responsible for firing the gun which caused the fatal injury, but at this time no arrests have been made.
Just days before in Arlington, a 2-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself after finding a gun in a sibling's bedroom. On March 30, a Fort Worth toddler was hospitalized after finding an unsecured gun and also accidentally shot herself. She was taken to the hospital and survived.
"It's so tragic, they're all preventable," said Dr. Daniel Guzman, a pediatric emergency room doctor at Cook Children's in Fort Worth. "
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
He said last year they saw 45 accidental shooting-related injuries in the ER, eight were fatal. Over the past three years, a total number of 155 accidental shooting injuries, and 15 of those children died.
From first-hand experience, he's seen the damage associated with guns that are not secure.
"One day, I saw a 2-year-old who came in and shot himself and unfortunately, I saw my own child in it and that was a spark for me to say, 'I need to do more,'" said Guzman who is also a father and a gun owner.
He created 'Aim for Safety' in partnership with Cook Children's in 2017 after seeing an increase in kids coming into the ER with accidental gunshot wounds.
The mission is to provide education about gun safety and make it just as important as other topics for parents that are talked about such as water safety, sleep safety and more.
"I want to challenge everyone out there, if you own a firearm look at what you're doing at home and how you're storing your firearms and take a look at what can we do better to keep our kids safer," Guzman said.
He said the topic of guns in a politically charged world can come with raised eyebrows, but his main focus is on providing safe solutions to keep kids safe. He wants to provide safeguards for those who do keep firearms at home and let people know they're not exempt from an accident.
"If you own a gun you have to be responsible and know that a gun can kill someone within your own family, you can use it for protection, yes, but it has that lethality that someone in your home could get hurt if it’s not stored properly," he said.
Guzman said he's heard from people who express disbelief that something like an accidental shooting could happen in their home, but he said there's no reason to take a chance with kids, who know how to get into everything.
“They're so curious, they're going to get into places that we don't expect them to, and so just because you think you put that gun or hid that gun well enough for someone to not find it, our kids are going to find it. They know where they're at, growing up as a kid, I knew where my dad’s firearms were," said Guzman.
Lockboxes, gun locks, and safes are suggested as ways to store guns and secure them.
Across North Texas, police departments provide free gunlocks for gun owners.
To learn more about gun safety and how to talk to children about what to do if they find a gun, click here.
