Baby Boy Shot Dead By Five-Year-Old Brother

A nine-month-old boy is dead after his brother, five, accidentally shot him in the head while playing with a gun.

The baby was rushed to hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, on Monday but was pronounced dead.

Emergency responders were called to a home in Elmo, a rural town in northwestern Missouri, by the brothers’ frantic mother.

Sheriff Darren White said the woman had told 911 that her five-year-old son had shot her nine-month-old son in the head with a paintball gun.

But when the responders arrived at the scene they determined that the infant had been shot in the head with a real weapon - a .22 calibre Magnum revolver.

When the gun fired, the infant was in a playpen, police said.

Mr White said there is no reason to believe the shooting was anything other than an accident.