DETROIT (WWJ) -- A 68-year-old woman is facing criminal charges after police said one of her young grandchildren picked up her unsecured handgun and shot the other.
Itterlee McNeil of Detroit was arraigned in 36th District Court Monday on two counts of second degree child abuse in connection with the incident last Thursday at a house in the 13580 block of Rosemont Street.
Just before 2:30 p.m., police got a call about a shooting and arrived on the scene to find a 5-year-old boy on the kitchen floor as McNeil applied pressure to try to stop the bleeding.
The child was taken by EMS to a hospital, and survived the shooting.
According to investigators, McNeil was caring for the children in her home when the shooter, her 8-year-old son, found her gun, picked it up and shot his little brother in his right shoulder.
Following the incident, Detroit Police Chief James White told reporters that he's fed up with kids getting shot, some killed, in cases like these.
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"At this point we can't tiptoe around this," White said. "There's no nice words to put on this. People have to be responsible with their guns, and they have to care. They have to care about these babies."
"If you're gonna own a gun, which everybody doesn't need to, but if you've gotta own a gun you've gotta do so responsibly," the chief added. "We've gotta get tired it. We've got to have enough, and I've had enough."
Police in this case did not say where, exactly, the gun was when the child found it.
Bond for McNeil was set at $10,000 and her next court appearance, a Probable Cause Conference, was scheduled for March 10.
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