Mom who left gun ‘accessible’ charged after son kills 10-year-old sister, SC cops say
A South Carolina mom is facing charges after police say her 11-year-old son accidentally shot and killed his younger sister earlier this month.
Cabriya Lucas, 10, was found shot and killed in a home in Hanahan on the night of Oct. 5, and authorities began investigating her death as a homicide, The State reported.
The childrens’ mother, Bernadette Owens, was arrested Oct. 9 and is facing two charges of unlawful conduct toward a child, Hanahan Police Chief Dennis Turner said in a press conference broadcast on Facebook by WCSC on Wednesday afternoon.
Officials determined Lucas was accidentally shot by her brother, who has not been identified, with a loaded gun that Owens left “easily accessible” while she was away from the home, Turner said in the press conference.
“The children got the gun,” he said. “They were doing, in essence, what kids do: playing, and unfortunately this gun was loaded and it took a life.”
The 11-year-old will not face charges, police say, and the investigation is ongoing.
“This is a very hard investigation that we’ve had to work,” Turner said in the press conference. “This is one of the hardest ones I can tell you I’ve worked in my 20-plus year career.”
This story was originally published October 16, 2019 at 3:49 PM with the headline "Mom who left gun ‘accessible’ charged after son kills 10-year-old sister, SC cops say."
