Girl Fatally Shot in Her Home

A 3-year-old girl died when a shotgun held by her uncle apparently fired accidentally, striking her in the head as she sat at her family’s dining room table, police said Thursday.

The toddler, Evelyn Diaz, who lived with her family in an apartment at 1411 N. Durant St., was shot about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday, Santa Ana police said. Her uncle, Marco Antonio Gomez, 20, who lives on Gunther Street in Santa Ana, told police that he was unloading the gun in the apartment when it went off and killed his niece. The girl died at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

No charges have been filed against Gomez. The police call it an accidental shooting, but an investigation is continuing.

Neighbors around the Durant Street apartment building said they didn’t hear the shotgun blast Wednesday night, and the apartment manager declined to discuss the incident. Gomez was at a relative’s house Thursday after being questioned by police and was unavailable for comment.

Accidental shootings of children have occurred fairly frequently in Orange County recently, and law enforcement officials attribute it in part to a proliferation of weapons belonging to gang members and people trying to protect themselves.

In May, a 4-year-old Garden Grove boy was wounded in the chest with a revolver accidentally fired by his 5-year-old brother. Also in May, a 13-year-old Santa Ana boy was accidentally shot and killed by a friend of the same age.