4-year-old waiting for family in car finds gun, fatally shoots himself, Florida cops say
A 4-year-old boy excited for a family outing to get pizza went to wait in the car, then he found his dad’s gun and shot himself, Florida authorities said.
Chosen Morris died the next day, the Davenport Police Department shared.
The Morris family was getting ready for family night Friday, Feb. 21, Chief Steve Parker said in a Feb. 24 news conference broadcast by WTVT.
The dad was in the bathroom and the mom was in the bedroom, while the two older siblings were in the living room playing games, the police chief said.
“They were going out for pizza, they had promised [Chosen] they were going to stop by the store and buy him a present,” Parker said. “And then they were going to come back home and play some board games.”
Detectives believe the 4-year-old was excited and went out to the garage to wait in the car, then he found his dad’s handgun under the driver’s seat and accidentally shot himself in the head while playing with it, police said.
The boy’s mom told police she heard what sounded like a pop, as if something had broken, and she went out to the living room and asked her older kids what had happened, according to Parker.
The 7-year-old and 11-year-old said they hadn’t dropped or broken anything, but they didn’t know where Chosen was, police said. The mom went looking for him and saw the door leading to the garage was open, then she found her son in the front seat of the car with a gunshot wound, Parker said.
The mom, a nursing student, started providing first aid as they drove to a hospital, but the 4-year-old died at about 3 p.m. the next day, according to police.
The dad told police he keeps the gun for safety when he’s driving to and from work, but he forgot to lock it up Thursday night when he got home, authorities said.
“Again I can’t stress enough how tragic this incident is,” Parker said. “But on the same side of that is the responsibility and the lessons we need to learn in gun safety. We talk about this a lot as far as making sure your firearms are secured and making sure they’re put away from the juveniles so things like this don’t happen, and this is just a stark reminder of that.”
The police chief said he’ll meet with the State Attorney’s Office after the investigation is complete, per protocol, but he doesn’t anticipate anyone will face prosecution.
“I met with the family earlier today and they’re devastated. They are devastated about what happened,” Parker said.
Davenport is about a 35-mile drive southwest from Orlando.
This story was originally published February 24, 2025 at 4:54 PM with the headline "4-year-old waiting for family in car finds gun, fatally shoots himself, Florida cops say."