Kayla Tully Panama City caretaker arrested after 7 yr old shot by younger sibling with loaded shotgun at Florida family home. Mother tests positive for marijuana and meth.
A Florida mother was arrested early Thursday after having slept through an incident involving her 7-year-old daughter being shot by a younger sibling at the family home. The woman’s arrest follows the children’s mother admitting she had used marijuana earlier that day.
Bay County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a medical emergency call in Southport, Panama City, shortly before 2 a.m. and found the 7-year-old bleeding from a gunshot wound. Deputies administered first aid until emergency medical crews arrived and rushed the girl to hospital, where her injuries were described as severe and life threatening, the sheriff’s office said.
Kayla Tully, 32, a mother of five young children, told deputies that she left a loaded 20-gauge shotgun that she used for protection leaning against the home’s back door while investigating a dog barking at the front door.
From there, the mother sat on the living room sofa and dozed until she was awakened by one of the children who told her the 7-year-old daughter had been shot. She said she did not hear a gunshot.
Tully also told deputies that she regularly left a loaded firearm by the back door according to mypanhandle.com.
7 year old girl didn’t want to get younger brother in trouble
The girl told deputies that her brother accidentally shot her while the children were playing with the weapon and that she did not want him to get in trouble ‘by saying anything.’
The sheriff’s office said there were five children under the age of 10 at the home at the time of the incident. The Department of Children and Families responded to investigate as well, but it’s not clear what happened to the children in the home or the condition of the child who was shot.
Of note, Tully, tested positive for methamphetamine in a urinalysis, according to an arrest affidavit filed by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
Tully has been charged with cruelty toward a child/aggravated abuse, child neglect, and unsafe storage of a firearm. Tully is now in the Bay County Jail.
The whereabouts of the children’s father wasn’t immediately known.
