A three-year-old was killed after his mother's boyfriend 'pretend' shot him with a gun he didn't realise was loaded.
Little Lance Wilson was shot in the head by Zachariah Grisham during a game of 'bang bang' - a pretend shooting game the man often played with the youngster.
Police said Grisham, from Michigan City, Indiana, is being held on preliminary charges of reckless homicide and neglect of a dependant.
The live-in boyfriend of Lance's mother, was at home playing the game when he reached for his pistol - but said he didn't realise it was loaded.
LaPorte County Prosecutor Bob Szilagyi said Grisham and Lance often played a game where the boy would point his finger and say, 'bang bang'.
Grisham would play along by pointing his actual gun at Lance and pulling the trigger. This time, however, there was a bullet loaded into the chamber.
Police arrived at around 3.30pm on Sunday to find the boy dead inside the trailer where he lived with Grisham, his mother and at least one other child.
He had suffered a single gunshot wound to the head. Neighbour, Kim Vansickle, told ABC News: "As an adult, you should know better than to play a game with a three-year-old with a gun. You never know what could happen.
"And in this case, it went off and a little boy had to die."
Detective Sergeant Andy Hynek of La Porte County Sheriff's Department said: "When you pull the trigger at the wrong time, wrong situation, you can't bring somebody back."