6-year-old Atlanta girl shot in the head, killed

Atlanta police do know a 6-year-old girl died Saturday morning after being shot in the head.

What they don’t know, exactly, is how the shooting occurred.

“We don’t have any idea what happened at this point,” Maj. Adam Lee told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday afternoon.

The incident happened just before 11 a.m. at 1041 Martin St. SE, about a mile southeast of Turner Field. Authorities initially said Ja’Mecca Smith’s father accidentally shot her and fled the scene, but Lee said later that may not have been the case.

The father did leave the home briefly but was speaking with detectives Saturday afternoon, police said. No charges have been filed.

“At least four other children” and another adult were in the home at the time of the shooting, Lee said. No one else was injured.

A crowd of family members and neighbors crowded outside the home Saturday. The victim’s mother declined to speak with a reporter, but neighbor Ellis Jackson said he knows the family and called the shooting “a tragedy.”