On September 12, 2019, a tragic incident unfolded in the North County area of Saint Louis, Missouri, resulting in the untimely death of 3-year-old Rodney March III. The young boy was at his family's apartment on Jacobi Avenue when he discovered a firearm in a bedroom. The weapon, identified by authorities as a loaded. 40-caliber Glock, had been left unsecured and within the child's reach.
While handling the gun, the toddler accidentally discharged it, inflicting a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.
In the chaotic moments following the shooting, the boy's mother attempted to rush him to the hospital in her vehicle rather than waiting for an ambulance. While en route, she observed St. Louis County police officers on patrol and flagged them down for assistance. The officers immediately took over, transferring the child into their patrol car to continue the transport while one officer administered life-saving aid in the backseat. Despite these emergency efforts and his subsequent arrival at a local hospital, the 3-year-old succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead.
Following an investigation into the circumstances of the child's death, police arrested the victim's father, 28-year-old Rodney March II. Authorities determined that the father was responsible for leaving the loaded handgun accessible to his son. St. Louis County prosecutors subsequently charged him with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. He was ordered held on a $100,000 cash-only bond as the community grappled with the preventable loss of the young boy's life.
