La’Necia Bennett, Decatur, Dekalb County, Georgia mom charged after her 5 year old son accidentally shoots & kills his twin brother, Jeremiah Emmanuel George Jr. dead with her loaded unsecured gun.
A Georgia mother is facing murder charges after her 5 year old son ‘accidentally shot and killed,’ his twin brother with a loaded gun which the parent had failed to properly secure.
La’Necia Bennett, 25, faces numerous charges, including second-degree murder after Jeremiah Emmanuel George Jr. was shot and killed, Wednesday afternoon.
The shooting happened at the Village apartments on Pleasant Point Drive in Decatur, south DeKalb County.
At the time of the tragedy, the boy’s twin brother picked up his mother’s loaded and unsecured handgun and pointed the weapon at the 5 year old and pulled the trigger, killing him.
The boys had been playing in their mother’s bedroom when they found the weapon in their mother’s black purse in her nightstand, 11Alive reported.
The 5 year old boy was killed after his sibling pointed and firing the weapon at his brother’s chest according to an arrest affidavit.
‘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,’ the neighbor added.
Bennett was allegedly home at the time of the shooting, according to police.
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 told 11Alive.
‘It’s a murder charge based on the supervising adult’s negligence,’ Frye added.
Along with second degree murder, Bennett is charged with cruelty to children in the second degree. Bennett remains held without bond.
The DeKalb County Police Department has since reiterated that it provides free gun locks in a tragedy that could’ve been averted.
Everytown for Gun Safety estimates that there are 4.6 million children in America who live in a home with at least one unlocked and loaded firearm.
Nearly one child gains access to a loaded firearm and unintentionally shoots themself or someone else every day in America — an average of 350 children a year, according to the nonprofit.
The agency estimates on average, 125 people are killed and more than 200 are shot and wounded by guns in the United States every day. Everytown for Gun Safety estimates that nearly two children are killed every week in the U.S. due to unintentional shootings by children.
The agency stated that 2023 was the worst year on record for unintentional shootings by children, exceeding 400 incidents.
