Toddler fatally shot after his 7-year-old brother finds a gun in the family's truck

An undated stock photo of police tape. (Siobhan Howerton/Pexels)

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. -

Content warning: This story includes of the death of a child. Reader discretion is advised. 

A two-year-old boy was fatally shot when his seven-year-old brother found a gun in the glovebox of the family's truck in Southern California, authorities said.

Deputies responded Monday to reports of a shooting in the parking lot of a shopping centre in Rancho Cucamonga, east of Los Angeles, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.

The toddler was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to a sheriff's department statement.

Deputies learned the young victim was inside the truck with his brother, who discovered a firearm in the glovebox. The boys’ mother was loading items into the back of the vehicle when the gun was fired once, striking the toddler in the head, sheriff’s spokesperson Mara Rodriguez told the Southern California News Group.

The sheriff’s department is investigating and will send a report to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office to review for possible criminal charges, officials said.