A mother was arrested on multiple charges after police said she waited hours to report that her 6-year-old daughter had been shot Tuesday at a southwest Atlanta apartment complex.
Princess Smith, 35, was charged with reckless conduct and second-degree cruelty to children after her daughter suffered a gunshot wound sometime Tuesday morning, Atlanta police said. The girl was conscious when officers arrived just after 5 p.m. at the Abby Ridge apartments in the 3000 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, police said.
The girl was taken to a hospital, but an update on her condition was not provided Wednesday afternoon. According to the timeline developed by police, Smith did not seek medical care for her daughter or call 911 for at least five hours.
One person was initially detained by responding officers but was ultimately released and will not face charges, police said. Officials did not say who fired the gun.
The incident was just one in a recent rash of shootings involving children in metro Atlanta. A 7-year-old boy was killed outside a DeKalb County gas station Monday, followed by a 1-year-old who fatally shot himself inside a Cobb County home Tuesday.
The DeKalb child was shot when he and his 6-year-old brother discovered a gun in their father’s car. Dante Daugherty, 42, was arrested on second-degree murder charges after investigators said he went into the gas station and left the boys alone in the car. It was not clear which child pulled the trigger.
The following day, 30-year-old Conrad Carrington Clark was arrested after 1-year-old Royal Clark found a loaded gun and shot himself in the head, Cobb police said. Conrad Clark was charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and possession of a firearm by a felon, according to his arrest warrant.
Daugherty and Clark both remain in jail without bond, online records show.
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