Posted on 10/23/2026 12:50:27 PM PDT by chajin
According to Sheriff Grady Judd, a family that moved from Connecticut four months ago was attempting to buy dinner at a drive-thru when their credit card declined. Deputies said the father grew distracted while searching for another way to pay.
PCSO said as he bent over to check his card, he removed a Glock handgun from his waistband and placed it on the vehicle seat.
The 3-year-old child, who was playing in the backseat, grabbed the firearm and pulled the trigger, according to deputies.
Officials said the father heard a loud pop before frantically running around the vehicle, while a bystander called 911. First responders transported the child to Lakeland Regional Health where doctors pronounced him dead at 7:30 p.m.
"This is a horrible tragedy," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, during a news conference late Thursday evening.
Deputies said the child was to turn four years old in four days.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox35orlando.com ...
Very sad. Very much unintentional, but just as deadly.
Three year olds are very curious about everything.
The child probably thought the gun was a toy.
I’m guessing the Mother or no other adult was in the car at that time, and the child was unbuckled.
I don’t have kids, so there are many things I’ve never had to learn. Do 3 y/o even wear seat belts, or are they still supposed to be strapped into one of those Child Seats?
100% the Dad’s fault.
He should have been restrained in a child seat.
It will be interesting to learn if the father was a handgun owner in Connecticut or if he bought his first one in Florida.
If he's not in law enforcement, it's highly unlikely he carried in Connecticut since the Tories in government Connecticut have placed unconstitutional restrictions on the inalienable right to keep and bear arms.
It depends on the Dad's melatonin and ancestry.
This is likely the fault of the gun, Glock, Burger King, Governor DeSantis, the NRA, and President Trump.
The father as well
None of this makes sense. He was in the car at a drive-thru then he heard a pop and ran around the car? The child escaped from a car seat and grabbed the gun in a matter of seconds?
Why was there even a round in the chamber. A 3 year old can’t rack a Glock.
...and they reproduce and get to vote.
Because Anyone that CCW’s understands that there is absolutely zero time to rack a round.
Problem with the Glock is it has no grip safety, otherwise it should have been significantly harder for a 3 year old to fire it off.Real Problem is the idiot “father” should not have left it easily accessible and if so, should have cleared and unloaded it.
I’m guessing illegal handgun. So much unlawful activity and suspect behavior is evident. Having a credit card declined is not necessarily an indicator of lower socioeconomic status by itself but as part of a complex of symptoms it is explanatory. Keeping a gun in a waistband is a poor decision. I suspect the child was not in a required restraining seat which is a prerequisite for driving with a child in a car in every state in America.
Apparently the 3 year old child who died was almost 4 so he was practically a 4 year old child. I have a four year old grandson who rides in my car frequently and there is no way he would be able to reach into the front seat. He is buckled in before the car moves. No exceptions. I also don’t go through drive through windows. I get out of the car and go into the restaurant.
I am also suspicious about the lack of details in the story concerning demographic information about the gun carrying man and the child.
Agreed.
A 1 yr, a 3 yr old.
We need to ban children from cars.
I was living for a time with my niece and her husband. I had a bedroom in the finished basement next to their eldest son’s room.
He had just turned 21 and bought himself a handgun. I remember telling him he should take an NRA approved gun safety course, said he would but didn’t get around to it.
Shortly after he got the gun, I had just laid down to go to sleep when I hear a loud bang and the smell of gun powder. I knocked on his door and opened it to find him on his bed, his hand near his thumb bleeding profusely.
I ran upstairs to his parent’s room and said, “Ben accidently shot himself”. His dad rushed him to the hospital.
The local police came because the hospital had to report a gunshot wound. The cop knew my niece and her husband so was pretty chill but interviewed us about what happened.
Before going to the hospital Ben said he was cleaning the gun when it went off. He evidently didn’t check to see if there was a bullet in the chamber. All the cop could say was “what an idiot”.
Then he saw the bullet had passed through Ben’s bedroom door and into the wall just over my bed. If I had still been sitting up reading as I often did, the bullet might well have struck me in the head.
His hand was OK, nearly blew his thumb off but was fixed up, but his parents made him get rid of the gun (they had toddlers in the house), made him keep it at his mom’s house until he could prove he was responsible enough and took and passed a safety course.
Ben felt terrible and apologized to me repeatedly realizing he might have accidently killed me that night.
Nothing wrong with guns but as my dad often told me, they are not toys.
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