HARVEY, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The mayor of Harvey is questioning the lack of charges, so far, following the accidental shooting death of a 2-year-old girl last week.
Mayor Christopher Clark said the parents of Majestee Hale should be facing charges.
“As an attorney and mayor, I have had time to review the case and the evidence, and believe there is sufficient evidence,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
But the Cook County state’s attorney’s office countered with a statement of its own saying “Additional evidence [is] needed before a final charging decision can be made. At this time, the matter remains a continuing investigation.”
The parents of Majestee Hale were arrested and later released after a gun accidentally discharged on Oct. 4 inside her grandmother’s house near 153rd Street and Lexington Avenue, a Harvey spokesman said.
Clark and his office declined to say who was handling the gun when it went off and struck Majestee in the head. Police have said other children were inside the home at the time, and shell casings were found inside, Clark said in his statement.
Majestee’s father carried her out of the home and they were taken by police to Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, where Majestee was pronounced dead. The cause and manner of death remain pending further investigation.
The gun that killed the little girl was legally owned, and was one of two guns found in the house, a Harvey official said. The gun was discharged and the girl was reported to have been shot in the head.
Authorities have not said who was holding the gun. The other children who were in the home remain in the custody of the parents.
Majestee and her parents do not live in the area and were staying at Majestee’s grandmother’s home at the time of the shooting, the official said.
In its statement, the state’s attorney’s office said it reviewed “initial information brought to us by the Harvey Police Department” and decided more evidence was needed for criminal charges to be filed.
Clark noted that the case highlights the potential danger of having guns in the home.
(WBBM Newsradio and the Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this copy.)
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