The 3-year-old girl fatally shot in Southeast D.C. Wednesday night was accidentally shot by another child who was playing with a Gun, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. Little Dalis Cox was shot on the 600 block of 46th Place SE in Benning Ridge about 8:15 p.m. Wednesday. Cox’s father said that the girl’s mother lives in the apartment complex where Dalis was shot. It is not known who the gun belonged to, or where it was in the apartment.

The child was rushed to Prince George’s Hospital Center in critical condition by D.C. police who were already on the scene, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said at a news briefing Thursday afternoon. Dalis was pronounced dead late Wednesday.

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Toddler Girl Shot by Her Brother playing with a gun:

Police later confirmed that Dalis’s brother fired the shot. The 7-year-old shooter did not know the gun was loaded when he pulled the trigger while playing with the firearm.

“We believe it was a young child that got their hands on the gun,” Lanier said, noting the firearm was not registered. “We have no reason to believe that it’s anything other than an accident, so what we’re looking at is how the gun got into the house,” Lanier said.

“The young boy does not even understand that he killed his baby sister”, Deborah Fletcher, a cousin of Cox’s mother, Jasmine.

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“Dalis is my life and soul,” the father said. “I’m at a real loss. People need to make sure they are with their kids at all times. Tomorrow is not promised.”

The 48-year-old man said he last saw his young daughter just hours before her death when he came by the apartment after work to spend time with his children.

Dalis’s mother declined to talk publicly about her daughter or the shooting, and many who visited her Thursday followed suit, asking that they be left alone to mourn.