A 5-year-old Georgia boy was accidentally gunned down by his own twin brother — and their mother is now facing murder charges for allegedly leaving her handgun loaded and unattended around the boys.
Jeremiah Emmanuel George Jr. was killed at his DeKalb County home Wednesday when his brother shot him with a handgun belonging to their mother, La’Necia Bennett, according to police.
The boys had been playing in their mother’s bedroom when they found the gun stashed in a black purse in her nightstand, according to an arrest warrant for the 25-year-old mother obtained by 11Alive.
Little Jeremiah’s brother picked up the gun and accidentally shot him in the chest.
An ambulance rushed to the scene, but Jeremiah couldn’t be saved and died at the family’s home.
“I just seen the ambulance go inside the apartment and they came out with a child and put him on a stretcher and started doing CPR,” a neighbor told 11Alive.
“That could be my child, that could be anyone’s child,” they added.
Bennett was allegedly home at the time of the shooting, according to police.
She was arrested and is being held without bond.
The mother faces numerous charges, including second-degree murder.
Although Bennet is not suspected of pulling the trigger herself, she faces the murder charge because the death happened while Jeremiah was under her care, cops said.
“Police have determined, thus far, on the minimum of facts that they have, her watching him, not well enough for him to be shot by another child in the household and then he died — that’s why she’s charged with murder,” defense attorney Kim Frye explained to 11Alive.
“It’s a murder charge based on the supervising adult’s negligence,” Frye added.
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