KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City, Missouri, man faces up to 15 years in prison after he was charged Tuesday with child endangerment after a 3-year-old girl found his firearm and shot herself.
Just before noon Monday, police in Sugar Creek were called to respond to a shooting incident at a home.
When officers arrived, they were directed toward the main bedroom in the home, where they located the child suffering from a gunshot wound to her abdomen. Paramedics rushed the girl to a local hospital for treatment of her injuries, and police believe her injuries are not life-threatening.
During the investigation, police interviewed the girl’s mother, who told detectives she was in the kitchen with the victim, when moments later, she heard a loud pop from the bedroom. She rushed to the bedroom where she found her daughter shot.
On Tuesday, the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Syncere Taylor, 19, with felony child endangerment. In an interview with detectives, Taylor allegedly said he had the weapon for protection after he was recently shot at. He allegedly admitted he had left the gun on the bed in the bedroom where the girl was found injured.
“No child should ever suffer a gunshot wound when effective tools exist to prevent it,” Prosecutor Melesa Johnson said Tuesday in a press release. “This little girl will likely carry the physical and emotional scars of this entirely preventable incident for the rest of her life.”
Johnson said Taylor was a client of SAVE KC, a program that identifies at-risk persons in an attempt to prevent them from committing crimes. Prosecutors said Tuesday they are filing to revoke Taylor’s bond in a separate case, and they requested a bond of $50,000 in connection to Tuesday’s charges.
“Owning firearms comes with serious responsibility,” Johnson said. “Properly securing firearms and using gun locks costs nothing compared to a child’s life.
“When gun owners fail their responsibility and children are harmed as a result, our office will hold them accountable,” Johnson said.
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