CHICAGO — A Chicago man has been charged with child endangerment after his 3-year-old son was shot and killed by his 6-year-old son while the two were playing “cops and robbers,” police said Sunday.
The 6-year-old found the loaded revolver on top of the refrigerator and shot his little brother, Eian Santiago, in the head Saturday evening, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The older brother’s name was not disclosed.
The boys’ father, Michael Santiago, 25, was arrested and charged with child endangerment, a felony, police said. He appeared in court Sunday and is being held on a $75,000 bond, according to DNAinfo.com Chicago, a local news website.
“He was a beautiful kid. It’s real crazy,” the grandfather, Israel LaSalle, said in a tearful interview on CLTV, a local television station. “That’s why parents should never have guns in the house.”
The shooting happened at about 9:05 p.m. CDT on the city’s northwest side. The 3-year-old was carried by a family member a block away to Norwegian American Hospital, and then transported to Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly before midnight, officials said.
Michael Santiago told police he was a former member of the Spanish Cobras street gang and had purchased the gun from a gang member for protection, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
At the bond hearing, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph DiBella said the shooting happened when the children were in the care of their grandfather while Santiago was at work and his wife was at the store with a younger child, age 1, according to DNAinfo.com.
Santiago had shown the 6-year-old the gun a week before, telling him it was only for adults, DiBella said, according to the website. The gun had been wrapped in pajama pants.