A 6-year-old girl, Maliyah Palmer has died after she was accidentally shot in the head by her 12-year-old brother.
Reports say that the parents were attending a Christmas party when the incident occurred.
The two were reportedly being watched by their 16-year-old brother before Florissant police responded to the shooting at 11 p.m. The 12-year-old reportedly found the 9mm pistol inside a dresser in his parent’s bedroom and fired the gun.
“All of the officers who responded to the scene are mothers and fathers, so you can only imagine how personal it is to see a child shot in the back of the head. We will have counselors here for a debriefing hopefully this week to make sure the mental state of our officers is OK,” Timothy Lowery, the police chief said.
Authorities called the shooting a tragic accident and, according to The Post-Dispatch, will investigate and turn in evidence to prosecutors. Authorities said earlier that no charges would be filed. The paper pointed out that parents have been charged in similar cases in the past.
“You couldn’t have written a more tragic script, the whole thing is just so tragic and terrible, but we have to put our personal feelings aside and do the law enforcement side of this,” Lowery said,
