Mother arrested after 2-year-old boy shoots 1-year-old girl
BATON ROUGE, LA -- Police arrested a mother after her two-year-old boy accidentally shot her one-year-old girl while they were in a car, CBS affiliate WAFB reported.
Baton Rouge Police Department officials said the mother, Crystal Kinchen, 23, was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison and charged with second-degree cruelty to a juvenile.
Sgt. L’Jean McKneely says the shooting happened Tuesday night while Kinchen and the two children were in a car that was parked at a strip mall. Police said the boy picked up a gun inside the vehicle and it accidentally fired, hitting the 1-year-old girl.
WAFB reported Kinchen was with a male companion.
“[Kinchen] advised she thought it was a firecracker, but [the male] discovered her daughter on the floor of the vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound,” the report says, according to WAFB. “During the interview, [Kinchen] admitted to being preoccupied on her cellphone.”
Officials say Kinchen and the male took the baby girl, who suffered a gunshot wound to the face, to the hospital. She is in critical condition, WAFB reported.