A loud gunshot awakened those inside the small ranch house in Madison Township Sunday morning.

When a man went to the living room, he found his 3-year-old son with a gunshot wound to his head and a handgun near him, said Capt. Jim Dean of the Madison Township Police Department.

Police and fire officials were called to the home in the 3800 block of Wade Road shortly after 9 a.m. The boy was rushed to Nationwide Children's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later, Dean said.

"It's terrible, terrible," the captain said.

Dean said one of his sergeants was the first to arrive at the scene and helped carry the boy outside the home.

Chris Bertolina, who lives down the street, happened to be out in her front yard when she saw the township police car speed down her street.

Bertolina said she saw a man at his front porch yelling: "Sir, over here. Help, help."

Shortly afterwards, Bertolina said she saw the officer carrying the boy wrapped in a bloody sheet. The man got into a Franklin County sheriff's office cruiser, which followed the medic unit to the hospital. Dean said the father was at the hospital when the child was pronounced dead.

Detectives are investigating the case and obtained a search warrant for the residence, Dean said.

The father told police that he kept a loaded gun in the kitchen on a shelf.

It is believed that the 3-year-old boy got up while the others were sleeping, found the gun in the kitchen, went to the living room and shot himself, Dean said.

Detectives have determined that the shooting was accidental, he said.

The case will be turned over to the prosecutor's office to decide whether charges should be filed, Dean said.

The 3-year-old boy who died has a surviving twin brother who was home when the shooting occurred. The father, who found the boy, was with his girlfriend and there was also a baby girl staying at the house overnight along two roommates who were in the basement when the shooting occurred, Dean said. The surviving brother was sent to his mother's at another location.

The deceased child's name had not been released by police Sunday.