WASHINGTON — A 3-year-old girl died Wednesday night in what a relative calls an accidental shooting in Southeast D.C.

Dalis Cox was shot at about 8 p.m. in an apartment on 46th Place near Benning Road, the police say.

Investigators say it appears another child was playing with a gun and it went off.

“It was just an accident,” says Deborah Fletcher, a cousin of Cox’s mother.  “It’s something you’ll never get over, and you’ll never forget.”

Fletcher says the child who pulled the trigger was Cox’s 7-year-old brother. “He doesn’t even understand,” Fletcher says.

Police say they have the “illegal gun,” and at this time no one has been charged in the case.

The police say Cox was unresponsive and was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.  A medical examiner’s report will reveal the exact cause and manner of the girl’s death.