It's a tragedy whenever a child gets his hands on a gun and it accidentally goes off. But how to handle a case in which a five-year-old boy deliberately retrieves his father's gun from the top of a bookcase after having a "confrontation" with his younger sister, Makayla, then goes and shoots her at close range?
A prosecutor in Marion County, Indiana, decided to file charges . . . against the boy's father.
James Booher was charged with three felony counts of child neglect, one of which carries a sentence of 20-50 years in prison. He was arrested at the close of his daughter's funeral.
The prosecutor, Carl Brizzi, argued that Booher was responsible because he knew his son was capable of firing the gun, as he had done so less than a year ago, when he fished his father's gun from the top of the refrigerator and shot a hole in a kitchen cabinet.
Booher claimed in his defense that he thought the gun wasn't loaded, since the magazine had been pulled. Police found that a bullet had remained in the gun even after the magazine was removed.
Other weapons were readily available in the house, Brizzi said, including Chinese throwing stars and samurai swords. He called the home "a dangerous environment."
The boy and his older sister were placed in foster care.
