Two children live streaming in their family's St. Louis apartment were killed on Friday when one of them fatally shot the other before killing herself, according to authorities.
Family members of the children who were cousins are calling what happened a tragic accident.
Police reported that 12-year-old Paris Harvey shot her cousin 14-year-old Kuaron Harvey and then shot herself at around 2 a.m. in the apartment while making a video on Instagram Live.
The incident is still being investigated by authorities, but they have initially called it a murder-suicide.
Susan Dyson, the grandmother of the girl, Paris Harvey, shared that she saw the live stream the two cousins were doing at the downtown St. Louis apartment, the St. Louis Dispatch reported.
Dyson, who is from the Dallas area, told the Dispatch that the family had rented the apartment to celebrate March birthdays, and the two were not fighting on their live stream when the shooting happened.
"It wasn't a situation where they were arguing or anything like that," Dyson said. "They were playing with the gun, when they shouldn't have been. Of course, they shouldn't have been doing it. I think it just went off. It went off by mistake."
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The mother of Paris, Shinise Harvey, shared with KSDK what she was told happened in the video from family members, as she has not been able to watch it herself, but she says it was not a murder-suicide.
The cousins were alone in the bathroom making the video in the mirror before the shooting. The family reported that the footage showed Paris reaching for the gun that dropped accidentally and shot Kuaron. It then reportedly went off again, killing Paris. Both children were shot in the head.
"She dropped the gun, and it fell, and it went off to my knowledge, and then when she picked it up, she picked it up by the barrel, and it went off, and that's all I know...It was not a suicide," Shinise Harvey told KSDK. "It was just a freak accident."
The family reported that the gun belonged to the 14-year-old, but police have not confirmed that, the Associated Press reported.
Shinise Harvey said that the two cousins were "trying to be too hip," playing with the gun, and now they have lost their lives.
The investigation into the shooting and who owned the gun is ongoing. Police are also still looking into whether anyone else could be charged.
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