GA - Millie Drew Kelly, 6, shot dead by 4-year-old brother, Paulding County, 10 Apr 2019

[cybervampira]

Girl, six, dies after her brother, four, accidentally shoots her in the head in the family's car | Daily Mail Online

A six-year-old Georgia girl has died after her younger brother accidentally shot her in the head when their mom 'hopped out' of the family's car to see why the vehicle wouldn't start.

Millie Drew Kelly was killed as she sat with her four-year-old sibling inside the car parked in the driveway of their Paulding County home on Monday evening.

Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Ashley Henson said: 'They were all loaded up to leave the home and the car wouldn’t start.

'Their mother hopped out to find the source of the problem, and somehow the young boy got hold of a handgun.

'That is when she heard the shot. As you can imagine, the mom was frantic.'

Her younger brother is thought to have taken the gun from the console of the vehicle before Millie was struck in the right side of her head.

Following the accidental shooting tragic Millie was rushed to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta location where she died Wednesday.

Sgt. Henson confirmed no charges will be filed, AJC reports.

He told 11 Alive: 'Sometimes, unfortunately, accidents do happen and bad things happen to good people.'

[...]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=383423159178643

6-year-old girl dies days after accidental shooting

6-year-old Georgia girl dies days after younger brother accidentally shoots her in the head

 

[cybervampira]

What I don’t understand is how can this be classified as an accident with no charges filed? Small children having access to loaded guns is an accident and not reckless endangerment?

 

[Timekeeper65]

Oh GAWD. This mother and family will have to endure this pain forever. Like a pebble dropped into water...ripple effect. Grief. Guilt. Never ending heartache.

 

[Trudie]

What I don’t understand is how can this be classified as an accident with no charges filed? Small children having access to loaded guns is an accident and not reckless endangerment?

Ita CyberV. At other times, charges are filed against the parent for having a loaded gun readily available to a child. Betcha mom never carries a gun again. Utterly devastating. Too often we hear of this happening.
What a beautiful child.
Hopefully mom recovers, idk how one goes on after this......I truly don’t.
All MOO

 

[mickey2942]

What I don’t understand is how can this be classified as an accident with no charges filed? Small children having access to loaded guns is an accident and not reckless endangerment?

I completely agree with you.

The key issue is, if you have guns around children, you educate them, my kids would've touched a red hot stove before touching one of their Daddy's guns. Seriously. That fear had been so drilled into them, that when he started teaching them how to clean the guns, they were still scared!

People who don't know how to handle guns, shouldn't have them. The gun should have had a child safety lock feature. They give them away free here.

Is prison the answer? No. Just take a picture of the inside of the car, and make people who buy a gun read the article and sign that they have read and seen the picture. And they will add a child lock with their gun purchase.

 

[Trudie]

I agree, the safety lock is vital. This was an accident waiting to happen. If she carried the gun in her purse, either child could find it in the house, as well.
Just horrifically sad. Very upsetting bedtime story.

 

[borndem]

"No charges will be filed..." Damm.
One child shooting another child -- how many times have we seen it or read it on mainstream news? The next day, or soon after, we hear about someone going into a school, theater, office, night club, etc., etc., and read that 5, 15, or 20 people have been shot and are dead, nearly dead, or moderately wounded. I'm not saying that this little boy will grow up and do that, not at all. What I'm saying is that whether it's 1 or 20 gunshot deaths, we j read about it, mourn it and are so sorry to hear about it when it happens again.
I know this will sound extreme to some, but we have seen it, and we know we will see it again.
My heart aches.

 

[Trudie]

"No charges will be filed..." Damm.
One child shooting another child -- how many times have we seen it or read it on mainstream news? The next day, or soon after, we hear about someone going into a school, theater, office, night club, etc., etc., and read that 5, 15, or 20 people have been shot and are dead, nearly dead, or moderately wounded. I'm not saying that this little boy will grow up and do that, not at all. What I'm saying is that whether it's 1 or 20 gunshot deaths, we j read about it, mourn it and are so sorry to hear about it when it happens again.
I know this will sound extreme to some, but we have seen it, and we know we will see it again.
My heart aches.

Another thing I notice is one like case will be charged, the next not. It needs to be across the board.
We see the same thing when a child dies in a hot car. Some are considered murder, some accidental, though the end result is the same. Jmo

 

[MsMarple]

What I don’t understand is how can this be classified as an accident with no charges filed? Small children having access to loaded guns is an accident and not reckless endangerment?

How does a 4-year-old "somehow" get their hands on a weapon from the console while mom's busy? Did he know it was there? Did he know how to disengage the safety or was the safety off? And why carry a loaded weapon to a freakin' baseball game? A 4-year-old's game?

And of course the inevitable fundraiser seeks to "bless" the family in their time of need. Wouldn't God instead prefer parents to exercise caution when keeping deadly weapons around innocent children?

Sorry but I'm sick to death of reading about kids having easy access to weapons and clueless parents not securing their guns properly. And the community rallying with love and money when the predictable happens.
A Georgia girl has died after her 4-year-old brother accidentally shot her, authorities say - CNN

 

[borndem]

Hear, hear!
Thanks MsMarple -- with you all the way.
Still cannot believe this.

 

[gitana1]

I completely agree with you.

The key issue is, if you have guns around children, you educate them, my kids would've touched a red hot stove before touching one of their Daddy's guns. Seriously. That fear had been so drilled into them, that when he started teaching them how to clean the guns, they were still scared!

People who don't know how to handle guns, shouldn't have them. The gun should have had a child safety lock feature. They give them away free here.

Is prison the answer? No. Just take a picture of the inside of the car, and make people who buy a gun read the article and sign that they have read and seen the picture. And they will add a child lock with their gun purchase.

Respectfully, everyone says that. Study after study, test after test show children whose parents are positive they wouldn't touch a gun, sometimes do so when the opportunity arises.

I don't care how much you scare them or "discipline" them or teach them or drill them. It's like saying, "I taught my four year old to NEVER run into the crowded parking lot when we leave the store. So I don't have to hold their hands."

For some reason many Americans think small kids magically acquire the cognitive abilities to understand consequences, cause and effect and to control their impulses around only guns. Nothing else. Just guns. Everything else we know to secure out of their reach or protect them from even after constantly teaching them the rules, but not guns. The deadliest of almost them all.

People would be screaming for the parent's blood if a kid died crawling into an unlocked freezer stored in the yard, or jumping into an unfenced, unalarmed pool, or if they died drinking some unsecured poison. Or countless other examples I can give.

Because children simply lack the critical thinking skills or frontal lobe development to be guaranteed to always follow the rules. And almost all parents know that.

So we teach and teach and remind and threaten and do all of that for an entire childhood and keep doing it while at the same time protecting them from themselves because we know they can't always help themselves.

Safety protocols should never change for anything dangerous just because a national mythology surrounds it or because it's become an identity issue.

Guns should always be totally secured or out of reach of children except when they're being supervised using them.

 

[borndem]

Respectfully, everyone says that. Study after study, test after test show children whose parents are positive they wouldn't touch a gun, sometimes do so when the opportunity arises.

I don't care how much you scare them or "discipline" them or teach them or drill them. It's like saying, "I taught my four year old to NEVER run into the crowded parking lot when we leave the store. So I don't have to hold their hands."

For some reason many Americans think small kids magically acquire the cognitive abilities to understand consequences, cause and effect and to control their impulses around only guns. Nothing else. Just guns. Everything else we know to secure out of their reach or protect them from even after constantly teaching them the rules, but not guns. The deadliest of almost them all.

People would be screaming for the parent's blood if a kid died crawling into an unlocked freezer stored in the yard, or jumping into an unfenced, unalarmed pool, or if they died drinking some unsecured poison. Or countless other examples I can give.

Because children simply lack the critical thinking skills or frontal lobe development to be guaranteed to always follow the rules. And almost all parents know that.

So we teach and teach and remind and threaten and do all of that for an entire childhood and keep doing it while at the same time protecting them from themselves because we know they can't always help themselves.

Safety protocols should never change for anything dangerous just because a national mythology surrounds it or because it's become an identity issue.

Guns should always be totally secured or out of reach of children except when they're being supervised using them.

Brilliant, so very true, and accurate comparisons.

It takes a while for a child to truly understand cause and effect, to develop reasoning skills, and to remember what Mom or Dad yesterday told her/him to do/not do. Their brains are still developing, just like their bones and muscles.

We can't hide the street in front of our house or the busy parking lot in a drawer, but we can damm sure put guns in a locked cabinet and put a trigger guard on each firearm. We neglect this at the peril of our own or other people's children. And this tragedy often lasts forever.

 

[Lion]

I have to start off by saying my heart goes out to that little girl and the family and friends!

Now how does a 4 year old child get a hold of a hand gun? Especially when the mom was getting them all in the car and how did he get out of his car seat? There's just so many holes and so many unanswered questions!

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

I am so sad that little Millie lost her life. And I am sad for her little brother who shot her. He will carry this his whole life.

ETA: All because a gun was left unsecured.

 

[borndem]

I have to start off by saying my heart goes out to that little girl and the family and friends!

Now how does a 4 year old child get a hold of a hand gun? Especially when the mom was getting them all in the car and how did he get out of his car seat? There's just so many holes and so many unanswered questions!

bbm - bold by me
You're so right. I'm thinking we will never know the answers to your questions and the many others we've discussed.
And one more thing,

Welcome to Websleuths,
Lion !!​

 

[Lion]

bbm - bold by me
You're so right. I'm thinking we will never know the answers to your questions and the many others we've discussed.
And one more thing,

Welcome to Websleuths,
Lion !!​

Yes, its just a gaping wound of unanswered questions that so desperately need to be answered! And thank you so much for welcoming me!

 

[MsMarple]

I have to start off by saying my heart goes out to that little girl and the family and friends!

Now how does a 4 year old child get a hold of a hand gun? Especially when the mom was getting them all in the car and how did he get out of his car seat? There's just so many holes and so many unanswered questions!

Wow - good question! How did he get out of his car seat, scramble up to the console, open it, get the gun and shoot at his sister?

I'm not implying anything nefarious but it does make me question if he was strapped in. And of course how did he know to look in the console?

Sigh. This could have easily been prevented. I hope it does haunt mom - she still has another child and she needs to learn from this. MOO.

 

[Lion]

Wow - good question! How did he get out of his car seat, scramble up to the console, open it, get the gun and shoot at his sister?

I'm not implying anything nefarious but it does make me question if he was strapped in. And of course how did he know to look in the console?

Sigh. This could have easily been prevented. I hope it does haunt mom - she still has another child and she needs to learn from this. MOO.

Also to pull a trigger and takes some force, how did a 4yr old get that much power and force in his little hands to pull a trigger?

 

[KNinTX]

Respectfully, everyone says that. Study after study, test after test show children whose parents are positive they wouldn't touch a gun, sometimes do so when the opportunity arises.

I don't care how much you scare them or "discipline" them or teach them or drill them. It's like saying, "I taught my four year old to NEVER run into the crowded parking lot when we leave the store. So I don't have to hold their hands."

For some reason many Americans think small kids magically acquire the cognitive abilities to understand consequences, cause and effect and to control their impulses around only guns. Nothing else. Just guns. Everything else we know to secure out of their reach or protect them from even after constantly teaching them the rules, but not guns. The deadliest of almost them all.

People would be screaming for the parent's blood if a kid died crawling into an unlocked freezer stored in the yard, or jumping into an unfenced, unalarmed pool, or if they died drinking some unsecured poison. Or countless other examples I can give.

Because children simply lack the critical thinking skills or frontal lobe development to be guaranteed to always follow the rules. And almost all parents know that.

So we teach and teach and remind and threaten and do all of that for an entire childhood and keep doing it while at the same time protecting them from themselves because we know they can't always help themselves.

Safety protocols should never change for anything dangerous just because a national mythology surrounds it or because it's become an identity issue.

Guns should always be totally secured or out of reach of children except when they're being supervised using them.

This, this and all this. Explaining the problem away by saying kids are uneducated when they stumble upon their parents' guns is not an acceptable explanation.

The simple truth imo is that it is the parents who are ignorant and/or negligent when a working gun is within the reach of a child. Period. To me that should be a criminal offense.

 

[T4Tide]

I am not anti gun, but I do not have a hand gun and this is the very reason why. There are so many unanswered questions I have about the actual accident and how it all went down. So many what ifs and whys...

That said, I know and love this family. All of them... parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins... are such good, sweet people. And I can tell you this: the pain they are suffering right now is worse than any pain ever imaginable. My heart is absolutely broken for this mama that I have known since she was a little girl, who now mourns the loss of her only little girl. There is no punishment, no charge, no unmerciful online comment that holds a candle to the pain in her heart right now. I can't describe the anguish of seeing your beautiful child in the aftermath of such an injury. They are so unbelievably broken, y'all.
It's difficult for me to put myself in their shoes... as I could never have a gun near my babies. But it's even more difficult to wear those shoes that are being consumed by grief right now. I simply cannot judge her actions knowing that she'd do it all differently if she could. I'm praying that they use this to advocate for gun safety. I'm praying for even a inkling of decrease of heartache. I'm praying I never have to hurt like I've watched my friend and her family hurt.

This is so very, very hard.