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An unsettling video of a toddler wielding a loaded gun in an Indiana apartment complex has sparked widespread concern online. Video footage from a neighbor's ring doorbell camera captured a diaper-clad toddler recklessly brandishing a semi-automatic gun as he played in the apartment corridor.
The disquieting nature of the video that showed a child carelessly treating a loaded weapon as a toy has ignited concern on Twitter, with many commenting on the inexplicable state of the world that has normalized gun violence. Professor and popular columnist Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, who wrote for the New York Times, was one of the many Twitter users who expressed disbelief about the alarming content in the footage shot on Saturday, January 14. She said:
“Who could believe we live in a society where this is real?”
In the clip, the toddler is seen crouching near the stairwell, waving a gun that reportedly had no bullets in the chamber but had a loaded magazine. Moments later, the child is seen pacing around the corridor as he recklessly points the weapon up to his face multiple times before sauntering back to his apartment.
Shortly after, the neighbor who captured the video reportedly called the Beech Grove Police Department, who arrested the four-year-old child’s father, Shane Osborne, for endangering the life of his child.
Twitter reacts to a toddler playing with a loaded gun
Shane Osborne, 45, was arrested after video footage from a ring doorbell camera captured Osborne's diaper-clad 4-year-old waving a loaded gun in the hallway of his apartment building. The incident has now sparked online concern as many are appalled after witnessing a child handle a loaded weapon with ease.
One Twitter user commented:
“We've descended into madness.”
While another said
“It's surreal.”
Beech Grove Deputy Police Chief Robert Mercuri was one of many who struggled to comprehend what he saw. In a statement to WTHR Indianapolis, the police chief said:
"I saw it the next day and even though I knew the outcome, as I'm watching the video, I was still scared. You find yourself catching your breath. I don't know how you can't watch that video, parent or non-parent and not be shocked and disturbed."
Additional information on the arrest of the father who endangered the life of his toddler
Police reportedly arrested the father of the toddler after conducting a search of the apartment. Osbourne allegedly denied possession of a weapon when police showed up at the apartment after they responded to a call from a neighbor whose camera captured the incident. The police then searched the residence and found a 9mm gun at the scene that had 15 rounds in the gun’s magazine, but no rounds in the chamber.
The incident comes in the wake of the recent shooting of Abby Zwerner, a first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, who was shot by a 6-year-old student inside a classroom.
