A Barrow County man has been arrested after allegedly shooting his girlfriend’s 9-year-old daughter while “racing” to disassemble and reassamble a firearm.
Tyler Lewis, 25, was arrested Wednesday night and charged with four counts of reckless conduct and three counts of second-degree cruelty to children, as well as single counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. According to Barrow County Sheriff's Office spokesman Capt. Matt Guthas, Lewis shot his girlfriend's young daughter in the side Monday while inside their mobile home on Ga. 82.
The girl, Guthas said, has since undergone several surgeries and remained in critical condition Thursday.
“Lewis was playing with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol in front of (his girlfriend’s) three children,” Guthas said in a news release. “Investigators learned that Lewis was ‘racing’ as he dismantled the firearm and then reassembled it. He even asked the children to ‘time’ him out loud to see how fast he was.”
“Lewis did this several times before eventually pulling the trigger on a loaded handgun while the 9-year-old victim sat next to him.”
As of Thursday, Lewis was being held at the Barrow County Detention Center without bond. The drug charges against him stem from “evidence uncovered at the scene during the search warrant,” Guthas said.
