Three-year-old India Grant just finished going to the bathroom with her mother's help Friday morning when she crossed through her parents' master bedroom and saw the family's loaded handgun sitting unsecured on a windowsill.
Dorchester County Coroner Chris Nisbet said India's mother was still in the bathroom closet when the child handled the .45-caliber firearm and looked into the barrel.
The gun fired. Dorchester County sheriff's deputies rushed to the home of Corey and Amaris Grant about 10:45 a.m. and found the little girl lying dead in the bedroom from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Capt. James Nettles said deputies still are investigating the death. "We don't expect any foul play, but of course we're investigating every avenue to find out exactly what happened," Nettles said.
Deputies used a large umbrella to shield family members as they were ushered from the house at 101 Meadow Run Drive to a waiting car. Shortly after, an official carried a tiny body wrapped in a sheet out of the house and into a sport utility vehicle.
Theo and Lisa Dolansky stood in front of their own home hours later, still shocked by what had happened to the Grant family, whom they described as good people.
The Dolanskys' 9-year-old son has been over to play at the cream-colored, single-story house down the street many times, but they had no idea that the family might have kept an unsecured gun in the house.
Their son, Eric, goes over to the house all the time because he is best friends with India Grant's older brother. The Dolanskys said the parents are very involved in their children's lives. "They have very respectful children," Lisa Dolansky said. "They discipline them properly.""I just feel so bad for that family right now," Theo Dolansky said. "That poor family is in for a world of hurt."Their sons hang out at the bus stop together and played together often, even though they attended different schools.
As the Dolanskys talked, Eric's bus appeared down the street. "How am I going to explain this to Eric?" Theo Dolansky said. Dana Eiser was among many of the neighbors who said they didn't know anything was wrong until they saw deputies and paramedics at the house. She called the shooting a tragedy.
"I know as Americans we try to protect ourselves as best we can, but we also have to protect our children," Eiser said. "To not have that put away is tragic."Nettles urged parents to keep their guns locked up and out of reach