Toddler Shot And Killed 4-Year-Old Sister At Pennsylvania Gas Station

A 4-year-old girl was fatally shot by her 2-year-old brother while they were inside a parked vehicle at a Pennsylvania gas station Tuesday, April 5, authorities said.

Chester police said officers were dispatched to a gas station outside the Eagle Save Mart on Kerlin Street, just before 11 a.m Tuesday after receiving reports of a shooting.

The children were inside the vehicle and the boy was handling a gun when it accidentally discharged, fatally striking his sister, police said. Their father was outside the vehicle when the tragedy occurred, they added.

It remains unclear what kind of gun it was or how the toddler got hold of it, Chester police said in a statement.

The girl was immediately taken to Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead, the police department said.

The family lives in the neighborhood and were frequent visitors of the mini-mart, CBS News reported.

"It was a morning ritual, I'd see them every morning," witness, Theodore Thaddeus Crump told the outlet. "He was a good dude. He went to work every day. He kept his kids right there beside him. It's the number one thing that he did, OK. Their dad was a very beautiful man."

This is an ongoing investigation and no further details were released at the time of this writing.

"Everybody in the community of Chester, in Delaware County, myself included, all of us are just heartbroken to think of what happened to this poor child," Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said, adding that detectives from his office are assisting Chester police in investigating the "absolutely tragic" shooting.

A similar incident was reported last month when a 3-year-old boy accidentally shot his mother to death inside a car parked outside a suburban Chicago supermarket.

The shooting happened around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 12, police said.

The 22-year-old mother, Daejah Bennett was shot in the neck. She was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where doctors pronounced her dead.

The child’s father was detained and will likely face gun charges, Dolton police chief Robert Collins Jr. had said.

The family of three was waiting in their car outside a Food 4 Less store in Dolton about 20 miles south of Chicago when the child opened fire, according to police.

The chief said investigators were working with prosecutors from the Cook County State's Attorney's office to determine the exact charges against the child’s father whose name has not been released.