After a single gunshot, Tahirah Phillips, 4, fell to the floor with a bullet wound to her head, police said. “She was a great big sister to her little brother”.
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The girl was shot once in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to ABC 6. They said, however, that they desperately needed to speak with the father about the accident. “We are looking for him”. After homicide investigators “broke down his story”, Phillips confessed he had accidentally shot the girl, Clark said. Santana tells Action News she comforted the mother of the 4-year-old moments after the child was shot and killed. A short time later, he walked out of the front door and was taken into custody, police said. Authorities were initially told the girl’s five-year-old brother had inadvertently pulled the trigger on Saturday (16 April) afternoon.
Police say he then picked up Tahirah and carried her into another room and called his fiancé, telling her to come home. He told officers that he had been playing with the gun and it had gone off accidentally, WNCN reports.
Maurice Phillips, 30, was arraigned Monday morning on third-degree murder charges and some lesser related charges, police said.
“She was full of life”, said Crystal Dougherty, a family friend, as she wept near the scene of the shooting. Stuffed animals, candles and notes of support were found laying in the road shortly after the shooting.
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Across the United States in recent years, there have been numerous reported incidents where children were either behind accidental fatal shootings or were the victims of such shootings.
