12-year-old St. Louis boy fatally shot while playing with younger brother

A 12-year-old St. Louis boy is dead from a fatal gunshot to the head.

According to a St. Louis police homicide investigation, the 12-year-old boy was accidentally shot while playing with his younger brother.

The victim Damian Holmes and his nine-year-old brother were playing alone at home shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday when they found the gun. The weapon was accidentally discharged, subsequently hitting Damian in the head. It’s not clear which child fired the fatal shot.

READ MORE: Chicago averaged over 2 murders a day in 2016, worst tally in decades

Damian was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police have not released his brother’s name.

According to the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 74 minors died from accidental discharges of firearms in 2014. However, AP and USA TODAY analysis counted 113 for that year, suggesting the federal government missed a third of the cases.

Using information collected by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan research group, news reports and public sources, the media outlets spent six months analyzing the circumstances of every death and injury from accidental shootings involving children ages 17 and younger from Jan. 1, 2014, to June 30 of last year – more than 1,000 incidents in all.

READ MORE: 1 child is killed every day from an accidental shooting in the U.S.

Among the findings:

• Deaths and injuries spike for children under 5, with 3-year-olds the most common shooters and victims among young children. Nearly 90 3-year-olds were killed or injured in the shootings, the vast majority of which were self-inflicted.
• Accidental shootings spike again for ages 15-17, when victims are most often fatally shot by other children but typically survive self-inflicted gunshots.
• They most often happen at the children’s homes, with handguns legally owned by adults for self-protection. They are more likely to occur on weekends or around holidays such as Christmas.
• States in the South, including Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia, are among those with the highest per capital rates of accidental shootings involving minors.
• In all, more than 320 minors age 17 and under and more than 30 adults were killed in accidental shootings involving minors. Nearly 700 other children and 78 adults were injured.