Authorities in Southeast Texas arrested a teenage babysitter Tuesday after a 5-year-old boy in her care accidentally shot and killed himself while she was asleep.
Orange County Chief Deputy Sheriff Clint Hodgkinson said Tuesday that 19-year-old Melissa Ringhardt was babysitting a 5-year-old and 6-month-old in a home in Vidor, about 90 miles east of Houston. Authorities say Ringhardt brought a handgun with her because she was scared of being home alone.
Ringhardt left the handgun on a table and went into another room to take a nap. When she awoke, she found the 5-year-old boy lying in the living room with a gunshot wound.
NBCnews reported the home had no telephone and Ringhardt carried the boy and his 6-month-old sibling, about a block to the boy's grandparents' home to call 911.
The boy was declared dead there when emergency crews arrived.
Ringhardt will be charged with abandoning or endangering a child, a felony. She's being held pending bond.
She did not have a listed phone number.
—The Associated Press contributed to this report
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