A four-year-old boy accidentally shot his brother dead after mistaking the gun for a toy, police have said.
Tyler "Ty" Aponte was found not breathing at his home in Louisa County, Virginia, on Tuesday with a gunshot wound to his chest.
First responders performed CPR and took the child to a nearby hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Their mother was at home at the time of the shooting, WVIR-TV reports.
"It's horrible, it's devastating," Major Donald Lowe, from the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office, said. "You come into a scene like this and you see all the carnage. You see everything."
An investigation is ongoing.
Elsewhere in the state on the same day, in Roanoke, a two-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself.
Police said an officer was flagged down by a car after 12pm.
A man and a woman in the car said their son had shot himself in their apartment, WSLS reports.
The officer called for medical support and the Roanoke Fire-EMS responded to the scene.
The child was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The death is being investigated.
No charges have been filed in either shooting.
