An accused father after his three-year-old son shot himself dead in Saint-Louis

A man from St. Louis was charged on Friday for the fatal murder of his 3-year-old son, who found a handgun loaded in an apartment the night before and shot himself in the head, announced managers.

Rodney March II, 28, faces a charge of endangering the welfare of a first-degree child, the County of St. Police Department announced. Louis.

March is accused of having left a .40 caliber Glock handgun within the boy's reach, Rodney March III, who managed to get hold of the weapon and shot himself in the head accidentally, according to a statement of probable cause filed in this case.

Online court records do not list lawyers for the month of March and a message left to a number that could be connected with it was not immediately returned on Friday night.

Police officers in the St. Louis County area were reported by a woman who was driving illegally shortly before noon Thursday and found the child shot in the back seat.

The police put the child in a patrol car, took him to the hospital and tried to save lives, but the boy did not survive, said the police .

The death of this 3-year-old was the first of two child-related violence deaths in St. Louis County on Thursday.

Clifford Swan III, 13, was shot dead while he was walking with two friends outside an apartment complex on Thursday night, police said.

Saint Louis County police said Friday they arrested Jabari Lowery, 18, during the massacre. He is charged with first degree murder and armed criminal act. He is being held instead of a $ 500,000 bail, police said. Online court records do not list any lawyer for him.

Clifford's mother said that the teenager was funny and outgoing. "He made jokes all the time, he loved school," said Trina Houshmand at KSDK, an affiliate of NBC, St. Louis.

The boy's older brother, Donald Walker, said Clifford "wanted to be like me" and that he was a role model for him. Walker stated that his younger brother was in the apartment to help his grandmother settle in her home, and that he had gone out to play with his friends.

"My little brother was 13, in eighth grade," said Walker. "I'm frustrated." The family said that Clifford wanted to be an actor and worked for that purpose.

Houshmand said that she thought her son was an innocent bystander and that the gunman was aiming for someone else.

The two deaths bring to 23 the total number of children killed in armed violence in St. Louis this year.

Lt. Col. Ronnie Robinson of the St. Louis Police Department said the major problem is "people who come into the community and sell firearms – stolen weapons".