6-year-old fatally shot in the head with unsecured gun on Detroit's east side

6-year-old shot and killed inside vehicle with unsecured gun in Detroit

A 6-year-old girl was fatally shot in the head with an unsecured gun Monday after being left alone with four other children in a vehicle.

DETROIT - Detroit police are responding to the scene of a fatal shooting of a child on the city's east side near Gratiot and Harper. 

The backstory:

Detroit police: 6-year-old girl fatally shot in the head

Five young children were left alone in the vehicle with a loaded gun, police say. 

A 6-year-old girl was shot in the head with an unsecured weapon and has died, according to Detroit police. The accident happened just after 12 p.m. in the parking lot of a strip mall.

Five children were left alone inside a vehicle with a loaded gun by the mother, who went into a restaurant to pick up food, said First Assistant Detroit Police Chief Charles Fitzgerald.

"At some point in time one of the kids tried to grab her but it was a little too late, one of the kids was shot in the head unsecured weapon," he said. "These things are so preventable." 

Fitzgerald said it is unclear that another sibling inside the vehicle shot the other, "We're still working through it."

He was asked how the mother is handling the tragedy - he said, "As you can imagine, the mom is a mess."

"We'll have to figure out what's going on with the weapon, why it was there, why it was left unattended," he said. "Then we'll present our findings to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office."

Fitzgerald said it is the third child shot since the weekend. 

A 6-year-old girl shot herself Sunday after finding a gun in her home.

Officials say she found a gun inside her home and accidentally shot herself in the shoulder. 

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield released a statement about the shooting, and mentioned the two incidents:

"The family tragedy that happened today on Gratiot and Harper is absolutely heartbreaking. I join the entire city in mourning the lost of this innocent child.

"What makes this even more heartbreaking is that it was completely avoidable."

"This is the second time in the past few days that a child in our city has been shot with a parent's unsecured gun.

"By the grace of God, the other injured child will recover."

Stay with FOX 2 for more information as it becomes available.