Tennessee boy finds loaded gun in mom’s purse and accidentally kills brother while waiting in parked car

A little boy left alone in a car with his siblings was accidentally shot and killed when his brother found a loaded gun in his mother's purse, WBIR reports.

The boy was sitting in the car with his three siblings outside a Verizon store in Crossville, Tennessee. The children's mother and stepfather left them in the car when they went inside to pay a bill. One of the boys found the semi-automatic pistol in his mother's purse and tried to unload it, WATE reports.

Instead, the gun went off and the bullet struck his 7-year-old brother in the head'. The child was airlifted to a nearby hospital but died of his injury, WBIR reports.

The incident occurred at about 3:15 p.m. local time.

"It's never good to leave a gun around a kid, regardless of if it's loaded or not," one bystander said.

Police and child protective services are investigating the incident.

Watch the report, from WATE, here: