Arrest made after 4-year-old accidentally shot by juvenile with unsecured firearm, CMPD says
A 4-year-old is in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after being accidentally shot by another juvenile in a northwest Charlotte home Monday morning, police said.
Willie Allen, 33, has been charged for his involvement in the shooting, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Tuesday.
Around 11:30 a.m. Monday, police responded to an assault with a deadly weapon call in the 2100 block of Long Ridge Lane. Upon arrival, officers found the 4-year-old victim with a gunshot wound.
Based on initial evidence, police said another juvenile found an unsecured firearm inside the home and accidentally shot the victim.
Allen was the only adult in the home at the time of the shooting, police said. Investigators found additional firearms inside the home, loaded and easily accessible.
Allen is in the custody of the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office and is charged with failure to properly store a firearm to protect a minor and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Police did not specify the relationship between the victim, the juvenile who fired the gun and Allen.
Recent shootings involving youth, unsecured firearms
▪ On Aug. 8, a 2-year-old boy in Gastonia shot and killed his father, Markovia LaShawn Durham, at his grandmother’s home.
“He thought it was a toy,” the child’s grandmother told Observer news partner WBTV.
The .40-caliber Glock handgun “was not properly secured at the time,” the Gaston Gazette reported.
Durham, 29, was feeding his son when the incident happened, the grandmother told WBTV.
▪ On the morning of July 24, a 14-year-old accidentally shot his 12-year-old brother in west Charlotte.
The 12-year-old was seriously injured, police said.
The 14-year-old was charged with possession of a handgun, which he found walking to a store near his house, the boy’s mother told WSOC-TV.
Police ruled this shooting an accident.
▪ A mother of five was accidentally killed in Cornelius on Feb. 15 when her children found a gun in her purse, according to Cornelius police.
Police found Gabriel Alexis Henderson, 25, in a back bedroom of her apartment. Medic pronounced her dead on the scene.
Investigators determined that the only people in the home at the time of the shooting was Henderson and her five children. The oldest child was in the living room, while the other four were in the bedroom playing with a small semi automatic handgun they found in Henderson’s purse, police said.
The mother’s youngest child also was shot but suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Youth, handgun shooting statistics
An estimated 4.6 million American children live in homes with at least one gun that is loaded and unlocked, according to Everytown Research.
▪ There have been at least 239 unintentional shootings by children this year, resulting in 94 deaths and 157 injuries nationally.
▪ In North Carolina this year, there have been at least 12 unintentional shootings by children, resulting in seven deaths and six injuries.
▪ Last year, there were 15 unintentional shootings in the state, which resulted in six deaths and nine injuries.
▪ In 2019, there were at least seven unintentional shootings by children, resulting in just eight injuries in North Carolina.
▪ In 2018, there were at least eight unintentional shootings by children, resulting in two deaths and six injuries in North Carolina.
This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 2:49 PM.
