4-year-old playing hide-and seek accidentally shoots herself after finding gun, cops say
A girl accidentally shot herself in the arm after finding a gun while playing hide-and-seek, Maryland police say.
Jayvon Thomas, the 4-year-old’s relative, was arrested on multiple charges stemming from the incident, the Prince George’s County Police Department said, WJLA reported.
Officers responded to a Cheverly apartment shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday, June 2, and found a girl with a gunshot wound, police said in a June 3 news release.
Others in the apartment were not hurt, according to police.
The girl, who had non-life-threatening injuries, was taken to a hospital, police said.
Through investigation, police said they learned the girl was playing hide-and-seek when she found the “loaded ghost gun (unserialized) under a bed.”
Thomas was arrested on multiple firearm charges, including “possessing the weapon and leaving it unsecured,” police said.
In January, Thomas, along with another man, was charged with murder in connection with the death of “Anwar ‘The Silent Assassin’ Wingate, a professional boxer,” the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a news release.
During the November armed robbery, prosecutors said Wingate was shot in the neck while trying to fight off the two men in a Washington, D.C., parking garage.
A judge approved Thomas’s request to be released for home confinement in April, court documents show, WTTG reported.
The attorney’s office told the outlet “Thomas was released over their objection.”
The court case is expected to resume June 8, according to WJLA.
Cheverly is about a 35-mile drive southwest from Baltimore.
This story was originally published June 4, 2024 at 1:12 PM with the headline "4-year-old playing hide-and seek accidentally shoots herself after finding gun, cops say."
