A 5-year-old Georgia girl was fatally shot by her friend her age while playing with a loaded gun, police said. Jada Willingham was playing with a loaded gun inside a bedroom, when a bullet went off accidentally, hitting the girl in the face. The incident happened in the presence of a babysitter and two other children, who were present at the home.
The incident is still being investigated by police but has left everyone shocked as how to the two 5-year-old girls got hold of the loaded gun. The girl, who fired the gun, is still in trauma after unknowingly killing her friend.
Tragic Death
According to police, the incident happened in the presence of a babysitter at Lithonia home when the two kids were left alone in a room for some time. Besides, there were two other children at the home, who she was managing. The 68-year-old baby sitter is the grandmother of one of the children.
She suddenly head a gunshot form another room and rushed inside to find Willingham lying on the floor and bleeding profusely from the face. The DeKalb County police responded to the house immediately around 2.30 pm and found the babysitter holding a cloth to Willingham's face and trying to stop the blood. The victim was immediately rushed to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston Hospital, where she later died.
According to police, the other girl was standing next to Willingham when they reached the home and was in shock as she couldn't believe that she had killed her friend.
Killed for No Reason
The babysitter told police that she had left the two children to play. The two girls were best of friends and had known each other forever. At some point, the girls found a handgun tucked under the bed and on top of an ammo box. According to police, the gun belongs to the playmates' mother, who is in the military.
They then went to a separate bedroom to play with the gun. Willingham's friend later said that the game was seeing what would happen when one of the two pulled the trigger. However, she didn't know the gun was loaded with bullets, and that she "only pulled the trigger back a little bit," police said.
Minutes later, the babysitter heard a gunshot ring out followed by crying. She rushed to the bedroom only to find tragedy on the other side of the door. When police arrived, they found the 9mm Smith & Wesson was found "without a holster, full magazine, with a round chambered," according to a DeKalb County police arrest warrant.
Police later arrested 36-year-old Chad Brooks Sr., the father of the other two children the babysitter was attending and have charged him with second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children after police said he left the gun unattended. Brooks reportedly is the babysitter's son-in-law.
