A five-year-old in Georgia is dead after being shot by her five-year-old playmate, who located a loaded gun inside the home.
The tragic incident took place on Friday in Lithonia as the two little girls played at the home of a longtime babysitter. Authorities say that Jada Willingham and her playmate were in a back room when a gunshot was fired. The babysitter, who was in the kitchen at the time, rushed to the room where the children were playing to find Jada suffering from a gunshot wound to the face. She was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
DeKalb County police investigators say that the two friends located the unsecured weapon, which belonged to the playmate’s mother, who is in the military. The child was able to lead authorities to where she retrieved the gun inside of her parent’s room, which was tucked under a bed on top of an ammo box.
Authorities say that Jada was one of four children inside of the home at the time. The 68-year-old babysitter, who is the grandmother of one of the children present, told police that the girls had been playing together their entire lives.
Police have charged 36-year-old Chad Brooks Sr. with second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children connected to the shooting. Police believe that he carelessly left the handgun unattended. Brooks is the father of the playmate and the other children and the son-in-law of the babysitter.
Jada’s mother, Keisha Walker, is furious that the woman present in the home when her daughter was shot is not also being held responsible.
“The babysitter showed so much negligence when my daughter got shot,” Walker told news station WAGA-TV.
