A 5-year-old shot his toddler brother dead while he had cocaine in his system, authorities said. They charged the parents in the death.

• The parents of a 5-year-old child who killed his brother were charged in the death.
• Prosecutors said both children had drugs in their system. The 5-year-old tested positive for cocaine.

A five-year-old boy found a handgun and shot dead his 18-month-old little brother in Lafayette, Indiana, according to authorities there.

Both children had drugs in their system, authorities said in legal documents charging their parents with neglect and drug offenses.

Lafayette Police Department said in a news release that Shatia Welch, 24, and Deonta Johnson, 27, were been arrested over the March 28 incident where their five-year-old son shot and killed his brother Isiah.

The police did not name the five-year-old.

The death is a grim example of a rare but persistent trend in the US where children find guns and kill with them. A recent academic review found that such incidents occur dozens of times a year.

The charges against the parents, unsealed on Tuesday, include a count each of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, as well as several other neglect and drug-related offenses, court records show.

Johnson was also charged with obstruction of justice.

The younger boy died after being shot by his brother, police said in a probable-cause affidavit obtained by NBC News affiliate station WTHR. Officers said the boy found the handgun somewhere in their apartment.

According to court documents reviewed by Law & Crime, Johnson initially repeatedly denied having a gun in the apartment, but he later told police that Welch did in fact own a weapon.

Welch told police that she kept her gun in a lockbox under the bed, but said that the second set of keys had been lost, according to prosecutors, per WTHR.

However, when officers searched the apartment, they found an unsecured gun in a dresser drawer in addition to the one in the safe under the bed, Law & Crime reported.

Police also found 93 fentanyl pills, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia in the apartment, according to prosecutors, per NBC News.

Prosecutors said that both children had drugs in their system, NBC News reported.

The toxicology report from the autopsy showed that the deceased 18-month-old had marijuana in his blood, and the five-year-old child tested positive for cocaine.

According to the court documents reviewed by WTHR, surveillance video showed Johnson placing a bag in his car after the shooting. Police later found marijuana inside the vehicle, per the local news outlet.

Both Johnson and Welch appeared in court on Wednesday, and their trials are scheduled to begin later this year.

A June 2023 study by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital, published in Injury Epidemiology, found that there were 279 firearm fatalities involving children between 2009 and 2018.

Among the cases in which the gun was fired by another child, the shooter was the victim's brother 50% of the time, the study said.