Grandmother faces charges after 2-year-old girl was accidentally shot by her cousin with an unsecured gun
The toddler was shot on the 1600 block of North 29th Street in Brewerytown.
The grandmother of a 2-year-old girl fatally shot Thursday in Brewerytown is expected to be charged with multiple crimes after prosecutors say the woman’s grandson found an unsecured gun and accidentally shot the toddler.
Twanda Harmon, 54, will be charged with involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of children, and reckless endangerment, the District Attorney’s Office said Friday, after Harmon’s 14-year-old grandson found and fired her gun, which had been “negligently stored” in an upstairs bedroom of the home, on the 1600 block of North 29th Street.
The teen, who officials said has severe developmental disabilities, was handling the gun when it fired at least once and a bullet struck his cousin in the back of the head. A 9-year-old was also in the room at the time, but wasn’t injured, the DA’s Office said.
The girl’s mother ran into the street screaming for help, her child bleeding in her arms. Neighbors tried to assist, and police rushed the pair to Temple University Hospital. But the little girl died a short time later.
» READ MORE: Neighbors recall heartbreaking moments after a 2-year-old girl was fatally shot by an unsecured gun
Harmon was not the original purchaser of the gun, according to a law enforcement source. She was allegedly given the gun by someone else, potentially a relative, who asked her to hold onto it for them, the source said, but that person then reported the gun stolen in South Carolina.
Local and federal agencies continue to investigate the source of the gun, and more charges could be filed, the DA’s Office said. The office added that there’s “no information” that indicates the three other adults who lived in the home were aware of the gun.
Information for Harmon’s lawyer was not yet available.
The toddler, whose name has not yet been released, is the youngest child to die from a gunshot in Philadelphia this year, and at least the seventh child to be shot unintentionally by an unsecured or mishandled gun, according to an Inquirer analysis.
Every shooting in Philadelphia has a ripple effect, traumatizing not only family members and survivors, but also witnesses, community members, and first responders. On Thursday, the residents of the Brewerytown block who tried to help the little girl and her mother were distraught, some physically shaking over what they had witnessed, struggling to process how a child they regularly saw walking with her mother, was now gone.
Every day, eight children and teens are injured or killed nationally by an unlocked or unsupervised gun in the home, according to research from gun control group Brady United, whose data includes suicides. Brady advocates for gun owners to practice safe firearm storage by keeping guns locked, unloaded, separate from ammunition, and away from children.
Various organizations provide free gun locks, including the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office and doctors group Temple Safety Net.
Advocates say gun locks can save lives and prevent lifelong injuries and trauma. Just this year in Philadelphia, a 5-year-old shot himself in the leg after finding a relative’s gun in his North Philadelphia home. And in March, prosecutors charged a 10-year-old boy after he accidentally shot his 12-year-old brother in the chest. Then, one month later, a father was charged after he mishandled a gun — which he was barred from owning — and accidentally shot his 5-year-old son in the pelvis.