The girl was shot in the face in a home in the Upper Kensington neighborhood in north Philadelphia shortly before 2:30 p.m., police said.
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The girl’s father was playing with the gun went it went off, police said, according to CBS station KYW-TV.
Inside the home, in the Kensington neighborhood, a man was found lying on the living room floor with an apparent shotgun wound to his head, police said.
Authorities told reporters a semiautomatic pistol was recovered inside the home, which they believed to belong to the father. Police had initially believed that the little girl’s 5-year-old sibling had found Phillips’ gun and accidentally shot her. But neither her brother or Phillips were at the house when police arrived. That evening, he showed up at the 24th Police District and told authorities his son had nothing to do with the shooting.
The girl lived in the home with her mum’s boyfriend Maurice Phillips and her mother Tera Riddick.
On Sunday, Phillips turned himself in and eventually told the police that the 5-year-old was not involved. The bullet fatally shot his four-year-old daughter in the face so he fled the scene.
Thirty-year-old Maurice Phillips is charged with third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment and reckless endangerment and related counts in Saturday afternoon’s death of 4-year-old Tahirah Phillips.
She would say, “No, I’m not bringing these kids out with this trouble”, Sawyer said.
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Santana, a neighbor, said she wasn’t surprised the family had a gun. Adding, “She was full of life”. “She was a great big sister to her littler brother”. She was always willing to help.
