A three-year-old girl shot herself in the face with her father’s gun after discovering it under a couch cushion, according to court documents.
Three of the girl’s siblings plus both of her parents were present when the incident occurred.
According to the affidavit, Omaha Police arrived on Saturday at 1:46 p.m. and declared the three-year-old dead on the scene. Her father, Phuc Le, was later taken into custody and charged with a crime.
He is accused of cocaine possession and child abuse, which resulted in death. Douglas County Court Judge Marcena Hendrix released him on his own recognizance late Sunday night. His court date is May 6.
According to court documents filed in the case under investigation by OPD’s Child Special Victims Unit, the girl’s 8-year-old sibling told police that the gun was frequently left out when his father was not home.
The child claimed that Le kept the gun in the basement beneath a pillow where he slept, and that they had seen it resting on the couch or a side table.
According to the records, the mother informed officers that Le typically kept the gun beneath a couch cushion while sleeping on it in the basement at night.
The 8-year-old claimed that on Saturday afternoon, the 3-year-old discovered the pistol beneath the couch cushion, but took it from her hands and returned it.
According to the records, the younger sister was fatally shot in the face after the girl allegedly re-grasped the gun and attempted to take it again.
Le told police that when he left for work around 11 a.m. that day, the gun was hidden under a couch cushion.
According to documents, he admitted to investigators that he did not lock the weapon in the massive safe in the basement before leaving that morning, despite his claims that he always kept it there.
He claimed there was never a bullet in the gun’s chamber, and he never left the ammunition clip in the weapon.
The records show that Le was unable to explain how the gun became loaded or why it was not locked in the safe.
The court affidavit states that Le gave police his safe code. Three rifles and a small amount of cocaine were found in the safe, according to the officers.
Le admitted to taking some of the drugs before leaving for work the morning of the shooting, but he also claimed to be keeping them for a friend.
He consented when asked if the three guns in his safe could be stored at the police department.
