A 28-year-old man from Georgia was arrested for violating his probation and he is now facing numerous charges after a 6-year-old took hold of his gun and accidentally shot his 4-year-old sister in the face.
Victim left in critical condition
The little girl was said to have been left at a convenience store on Whitesville Street in LaGrange after the accidental shooting on May 18. The LaGrange police officers immediately responded to the convenience store in the afternoon, and that was where they found the little girl in critical condition.
According to the police, the little girl was rushed to a nearby hospital and she was eventually transferred to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. The 4-year-old was stable but she is still in critical condition.
The investigators later learned that the suspect, Leemarkese Deandelo Melson, left a loaded handgun around the children at a home on Kelly Street. The police stated that the 6-year-old picked up the loaded gun, played with it. He then accidentally shot the 4-year-old in the face.
After the accident, Melson fled the scene and took the weapon with him. Melson is a known felon in the area he is already wanted on failing to appear in his court hearing and violating his probation twice. He was also locked up for a year after he was arrested for assault and burglary.
Melson has now additional warrants for tampering with evidence, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and second-degree child cruelty.
Not the first gun-related accident
Earlier in May, a 12-year-old in Georgia was shot and killed in the woods near their home after his 5-year-old brother found a loaded. According to AJC.com, the child accidentally fired the gun after the thought it was a toy. He and his 7-year-old sibling both told investigators during their forensic interview.
The 12-year-old boy was shot in the chest and died immediately. The police believe that a group of suspects was running from authorities when they threw the loaded gun in the woods. Near the crime scene, there was a bag of MDMA.
A man was eventually arrested for leaving a loaded gun and a bag of illegal drugs, but the police never revealed his name to the public.
Also in Georgia, two parents were arrested on May 15 after their 3-year-old son accidentally shot their 5-year-old son in the stomach with a loaded rifle. The parents, Terry Kelly and Clarice Fife are both charged with reckless conduct and second-degree child cruelty.
When the authorities arrived at the scene, they concluded that the 3-year-old had accidentally shot his brother with a loaded semi-automatic rifle.
The 5-year-old boy was shot in the abdomen and right arm, he was immediately taken to Augusta University Medical Center. The child was immediately released two days later. Kelly and Fife were in police custody in McDuffie County Jail. They were both released on May 16 on a $5,000 bond.
There are around 393 million guns across the United States. Statistically, for every 100 people, there are 120 guns sold. Around 1,7 million children live in homes that have loaded and unlocked guns, that is 1 out of 3 houses. In a report in 2015, 2,824 children died by gunshot, and 13.723 were injured.
