11-year-old shot in the neck while two teens played with gun nearby, Alabama cops say
An 11-year-old girl was shot in the neck while two teens played with a gun nearby, Alabama police said.
Police responded to a residential neighborhood in Mobile at 5:48 p.m. on Nov. 22 after reports of a gun fired, the Mobile Police Department told McClatchy News.
A 11-year-old girl was found lying in a roadway with a gunshot wound to her neck, police said.
Detectives said a 15-year-old boy “was showing the gun” to her and a 13-year-old girl. The teen girl was playing with the gun when it accidentally went off and hit the 11-year-old in the neck, detectives said.
The 11-year-old was taken to a hospital, where she was being treated for a life-threatening injury, according to police.
She remained in critical condition as of Nov. 23, police said.
The District Attorney’s Office will decide if the teens will be charged once the investigation is complete, police said.
More than 22 million children live in homes with guns — with nearly 1,300 kids under age 18 dying from gunshot wounds every year, according to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio.
“Nearly 40% of all unintentional shooting deaths among children” ages 11 to 14 “occur in the home of a friend,” the hospital said.
Mobile is about 257 miles southwest of Birmingham.
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 3:29 PM with the headline "11-year-old shot in the neck while two teens played with gun nearby, Alabama cops say."
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