A 3-year-old boy has died after a loaded gun was left within reach at his family home in DeKalb County on Saturday morning, authorities said.
DeKalb police were called around 7 a.m. to the 2600 block of Habersham Drive, a residential neighborhood in Candler-McAfee. When officers arrived, they were told the boy had shot himself in the face and that his mother had taken him to the hospital, where he died.
Several people were detained at the residence, located near Candler Road. Investigators eventually determined the gun belonged to Antoine Jordan, who allegedly left it unsecured, police said.
Jordan is accused of causing the child’s death by “not properly storing his loaded firearm, which the child picked up and then discharged,” according to arrest warrants obtained Monday. Police have not said if he is the child’s father.
Jordan was booked into the DeKalb jail early Sunday on charges of murder in the second degree and cruelty to children in the second degree, online records show.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
A 2022 report by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that when children discover a loaded gun and injure themselves or someone else, the charges can vary — if the gun’s owner is charged at all.
On Sept. 4, DeKalb officers responded to a shooting call at a Texaco along Rock Chapel Road and found a 7-year-old boy already dead with a gunshot wound to the head, police said. The boy’s 6-year-old brother also was in the car at the time. Their father, 42-year-old Dante Daugherty, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree cruelty to children.
The next day, a 1-year-old boy, Royal Clark, died after shooting himself at a Cobb County home, police said. The boy’s father, Conrad Carrington Clark, was arrested after Royal Clark found the loaded gun in their family home and shot himself in the head. The father was charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and possession of a firearm by a felon, according to his arrest warrant.
An investigation into Saturday’s shooting is ongoing.
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