FATHER FACES GUN CHARGE AFTER 3-YEAR-OLD ACCIDENTALLY SHOOTS AND KILLS MOTHER

Tue 15 March 2022:

Officials said Monday night that the father of a 3-year-old kid who accidentally shot and killed his mother over the weekend in south suburban Dolton faces a misdemeanor gun charge.

Dolton trustee Andrew Holmes said Deajah Bennett had just done shopping at Food 4 Less, 1000 E. Sibley Blvd., and had put her child in the backseat of her car.

As the mother sat in the driver’s seat, the child found his father’s gun, which went off in his hands and struck his mother in the back, according to Holmes.

The shooting happened around 8:30 pm on Saturday. Police said the boy found the weapon while he and his family were sitting inside their car — the father behind the wheel, the mother in the passenger seat and the boy in the back seat — outside a Food 4 Less store in the community about 20 miles south of Chicago.

“He somehow got ahold of the gun and began playing with it in a playful manner, pointed the gun and fired the shot,” said Dolton police chief Robert Collins Jr.

Daejah Bennett, 22, was struck by a bullet in the neck and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

On Monday, the police chief announced that the father of the 3-year-old now faces misdemeanour gun charges.

Romell Watson, 23, who was taken into custody after the shooting, will be charged with unlawful use of a weapon, said the Police Chief.

According to Collins, the man will be processed for the charge and was released Monday evening.

“We do not have anything to indicate that the dad fired the weapon so the avenue we are pursuing is that the gun was his responsibility,” Collins said.

Collins said earlier this week that investigators were working with Cook County prosecutors to figure out what charges Watson might face. He claimed, however, that there was no evidence that he directed the boy to fire the firearm or even saw it at the time of the incident on Saturday.

Investigators have already found that the father legally owned the weapon but lacked the concealed carry permit he needed to transport it.

“He was legally entitled to own the gun, however, he transported the weapon in a vehicle in a manner not prescribed by law,” Collins said.

A forensic interview of the child was conducted, and the boy was interviewed by someone who specializes in talking with children. “The child said he was the one who fired the gun,” he said. “We are confident he fired the gun.”

“This is just such a tragedy,” he said.

According to statistics by the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, there were 2,070 accidental shootings by minors in the United States between 2015 and 2021, resulting in 765 deaths. Ninety percent of the time, a youngster was also injured by gunfire. Seven out of ten unintended gunshots took place in people’s homes.

According to the study, accidental shootings by children have increased during the pandemic, coinciding with an increase in gun sales across the country.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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