10-year-old charged with murder in shooting of infant niece
A 10-year-old boy has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of his 7-month-old niece, according to court officials.
The young boy allegedly picked up a firearm that was stored under a mattress and shot the 7-month-old infant in the head, according to court documents.
Another child, a 7-year-old, was also home at the time of the shooting, according to court documents.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police responded to a report of a shooting on Friday to find that the infant had been shot inside the house.
The 7-month-old was rushed to an area hospital, but despite life-saving care, died of her injuries, according to police.
Detectives investigating the incident determined that the 10-year-old had allegedly shot the baby, and he was taken into custody, police said.
After questioning, the infant's father, identified as 19-year-old Ca’Marion Pawnell, was also arrested, according to police.
Pawnell was charged with second-degree murder and multiple child endangerment charges, according to court documents.
The father is accused of endangering a child "by allowing a firearm to be within access of other children in the home and this resulted in death" of the infant, prosecutors alleged in court documents.
Pawnell allegedly told police the gun belonged to him and he stored it under the mattress, according to court documents.
The 10-year-old told investigators that he knew where the firearm was and that it was "accessible to him for an extended period of time," saying he had even taken it out and touched it previously, according to court documents.
The 10-year-old is in the custody of the Missouri Children’s Division and was taken in for psychiatric evaluation, according to Missouri’s 22nd Circuit Court.
Missouri law states that a child under 12 years old cannot be tried as an adult, so the 10-year-old will be tried through the Juvenile Division of the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court, according to a communications officer for the court.
No attorney information was listed for Pawnell. It was not immediately clear if the 10-year-old had an attorney.
