On September 12, 2019, 3-year-old Rodney March III died after he found a loaded .40-caliber Glock in his family’s apartment on Jacobi Avenue in North County, Saint Louis, and accidentally shot himself in the head. His mother tried to drive him to the hospital and flagged down St. Louis County police officers, who took over transport and provided life-saving aid in a patrol car, but the child was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Investigators determined the firearm had been left unsecured and within the child’s reach. Police arrested the boy’s father, 28-year-old Rodney March II, charging him with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child; he was ordered held on a $100,000 cash-only bond.

The community reacted to the preventable loss of a toddler and the case raises questions about how the weapon came to be left accessible in the home. Anybody with information about what happened that day is asked to come forward.