On Sunday, 4-year-old Amirra Jacques died.
Amirra found a gun resting on a bed in her Riviera Beach, Fla., home. The intrigued toddler snatched the weapon off the mattress and began playing with it, as if it were nothing more than a toy.
Though the bedroom where Amirra found the weapon is shared by her 25-year-old uncle Nathaniel Lowe and a 16-year-old male who has not been publicly named, it’s unclear where either man was at the time when the child began fiddling with the pistol, WPBF reported.
According to SunSentinel, those two along with the girl’s mother Nashaiva Lowe were somewhere in the house.
Details of exactly what happened remain unclear, likely because her uncle lied about the incident, according to Riviera Beach police.
Amirra accidentally shot herself around 8:30 p.m., according to the Sun-Sentinel. She was rushed to the hospital but died soon after arriving.
Moments after the shooting, police were called to house, in the 1200 block of West 32nd St.
When they arrived, Amirra’s uncle, Lowe, told the police that someone had entered the house uninvited through an open door and fired one shot. He blamed that single shot for striking and killing 4-year-old Jacques.
Police, though, quickly learned that the girl had shot herself. The unnamed 16-year-old male who was in the house allegedly hid the gun two blocks away.
He eventually led police to it, the Associated Press reported.
On Monday, Nathaniel Lowe was charged with culpable negligence, tampering with evidence, grand theft of a firearm and possession of a firearm as a felon. Lowe is a six-time felon, WPTV reported, and he was already on probation which was set to last until 2018.
He was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail, where he’s being held on a $150,000 bond. He has been ordered to have no contact with the victim’s family or any minors – including the 16-year-old.
The teenager, meanwhile, has been charged with culpable negligence, tampering with evidence, perjury and grand theft of a firearm. He has been booked into the Juvenile Assessment Center.
It is not clear if either man has a lawyer of if either has entered a plea.
“No child, no child should lose their lives at the hands of anyone, whether it’s deliberate or accidental,” Riviera Beach police spokesperson Rose Ann Brown told WPTV. “A little girl is dead. So whether it was deliberate or accidental, she’s no less dead.”
Featured Image: Provided by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office
(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Travis M. Andrews
