Cops: Changing story leads to charges for Clayton mom in child’s shooting death

A Clayton County mother was charged with involuntary manslaughter Thursday after taking her 10-year-old child to the hospital, where he was declared dead from a gunshot wound, authorities said.

Officers were called to Grady Memorial Hospital just after 11:20 p.m. to investigate the shooting, Clayton police said. Grady staff told the responding officers the child was dead on arrival and had been brought to the hospital by their mother and her boyfriend.

Investigators interviewed 34-year-old Brittany Parks, the child’s mother, who first told them she had been unloading her gun at home and inadvertently fired it, according to police. The bullet traveled through a wall of Parks’ apartment, hitting the 10-year-old.

Parks’ boyfriend was also interviewed, with each giving a different account of the circumstances around the shooting, police said. Based on the information gathered from their changing accounts, police said they developed probable cause to charge Parks.

She was arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree cruelty to children and reckless conduct. She was booked into the Clayton jail Friday morning and remains there without bond.