Update: March 8, 2024 at 3 p.m.
The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office on Friday, July 28, announced charges against 54-year-old Twanda Harmon, the victim's grandmother. Police said the 14-year-old cousin, who has Down syndrome, located the gun in a second-floor room and discharged the weapon. That gun had apparently been reported stolen in South Carolina.
"There is no information at this time that indicates adults in the residence besides the defendant were aware that there was a negligently stored firearm in the home," the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office said in a statement. Harmon is charged with involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person.
She will be sentenced in May and faces a possible year or two in prison, but has already served about eight months, so she could get out.
Original story follows:
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A 2-year-old girl is dead after her 14-year-old cousin got hold of a gun and it went off late Thursday morning, police say. Now they are trying to figure out how the teenager got his hands on the gun.
It happened just before noon in an upstairs bedroom of a rowhouse on the 1600 block of North 29th Street, just below Cecil B. Moore Avenue in Brewerytown. Police Sgt. Eric Gripp says four adults were in the house at the time.
“It appears as though the 14-year-old was able to access an unsecured firearm inside of the house. And while handling that weapon, fired at least one shot, striking a two-year-old girl in the head,” Gripp said.
In addition to the teen and the toddler, a 9-year-old child and a 1-year-old baby were also in the house when the fatal shot was fired, police said.
Gripp said people in the neighborhood saw an adult carrying the wounded child out of the house. The young girl was taken by private car to Temple University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 12:30 p.m.
Gripp says once again this illustrates the need to have guns locked up where children can’t get to them.
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“How many times this year have we been standing out here and talking about an issue of unsecured firearms and what this can lead to? And this was yet another child whose life was tragically cut short,” he said.
At least one of the adults said they were aware of the existence of the gun, Gripp said, but police are trying to determine who owns it and why it was left unsecured.
Darnell Johnson, who lives nearby, said someone needs to be held responsible.
“Evidently there’s adults that’s involved with this gun. And they’re the ones that’s going to have to be in question. Because a child is just a child that doesn’t understand,” Johnson said.
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Compounding the issue, a couple of police officers who were responding to the scene got into a car accident with a civilian vehicle at 21st Street and Susquehanna Avenue. All three people are in stable condition.
CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this story, based on preliminary information from the police, the gender of the 14-year-old was misidentified. The story has been updated to reflect the change.
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