Aunt IDs boy, 3, who was fatally shot in Minneapolis home, speaks about what happened

A close relative on Tuesday identified the 3-year-old boy who was fatally shot this week in his family’s northeast Minneapolis apartment a day earlier.

Jajuan Robinson was critically wounded at the Hook and Ladder Apartments in the 2300 block of Jefferson Street NE. about 12:45 p.m., said his aunt, Meshia Woods.

Woods said police have told the family that Jajuan got ahold of the gun and it went off.

“Someone left a loaded gun [in the home],” said Woods, who has started an online fundraiser for her sister, Charlotte Williams. “He got ahold of it thinking it was a toy.”

Woods said her nephew, who went by Junior, “loved trucks and dinosaurs. He was just so silly and goofy. He was a mama’s boy.”

Jajuan suffered a gunshot wound to the top of the head, a source with knowledge of the incident told the Minnesota Star Tribune. Paramedics rushed the toddler to HCMC, where he died a short time later.

Woods said she did not know who owned the gun.

Police spokesman Trevor Folke said Tuesday evening there have been no arrests and had no update to share in the “active and ongoing investigation.”

About 200 minors have picked up a firearm and accidentally shot themselves or someone else in the United States this year, resulting in 74 deaths and 128 injuries, according to a database compiled by the gun-control advocacy group Everytown USA.

Of those, at least two occurred in Minnesota, including one case in which a 17-year-old boy unintentionally shot and killed his 16-year-old friend with a ghost gun without a serial number inside a New Hope home last month. The older teen has since been charged with first-degree assault and illegal possession of a machine gun.

In another case last April, an 11-year-old boy was shot and wounded by his 13-year-old cousin in St. Paul after a group of kids discovered two unsecured firearms in their father’s closet drawer. The kids were playing with the handguns, assuming they were unloaded.

Liz Sawyer contributed to this report.