Washington, May 15 (IANS): The father of a four-year-old boy in New Jersey was arrested after his son fatally shot a six-year-old neighbour in the head, CNN reported.

Anthony Senatore, 33, was charged with six counts of endangering the welfare of children and a disorderly person's offence for enabling access by minors to a loaded firearm, said prosecutor Jim McClain from the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.

Senatore's son was playing in the yard April 8 when he went inside and retrieved his father's loaded .22-calibre rifle from the bedroom.

When he came back out, he fired a single shot that struck six-year-old Brandon Holt in the head.

Brandon was taken to the Jersey Shore University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead the next day.

In addition to the loaded rifle, four other firearms were found in Senatore's bedroom, all unsecured, close to ammunition and accessible to his three children, the prosecutor's office said.