(Memphis) A 4-year-old Memphis boy was killed Monday while playing with a gun.
The accidental shooting happened in the apartment complex at 3988 Camelot Lane Monday afternoon while the mother was sleeping.
“I could hear him running around the house playing,” neighbor Linda Simmons said.
At 12:30 p.m., Simmons says the pitter-patter of little feet stopped.
“It got quiet and I thought he went to sleep,” she said.
Police soon rushed to her apartment building.
Her four-year-old upstairs neighbor Joshua Johnson was dead.
“It’s a sad day,” she said.
Simmons didn’t hear a gunshot, but police say the little boy found a gun in the home and was playing with it when it went off and killed him.
“My heart just hit the floor,” neighbor Adrienne Davis said. “I’m like ‘how did a 4-year-old child get a gun?’”
It’s a question police still haven’t answered.
They spent hours searching the home and took several people in for questioning, including the child’s mother.
“My heart goes out to that family,” Davis said. “That mother I can’t imagine.”
The unimaginable is becoming far too common. This is the fourth child in two months to be shot accidentally in Memphis.
On December 10th, a 2-year-old shot himself in the finger. On December 25th, a 12–year-old accidentally shot his 10-year-old brother. Then earlier this month, a 15-year-old was shot by his 16-year-old friend.
“Its just heartbreaking to hear about all these kids,” Davis said.
“My little friend is gone,” Carolyn Maris said.”I’m gonna miss him waving to me.”
So far no charges have been filed in the case.
We are told by neighbors that the mother has a daughter who was not home at the time of the shooting.
We tried to speak with the child’s father, but he was too upset to comment.
