Prosecutor: After boy, 8, shot sister, mom went back to work
Source: Associated Press
Updated 4:56 pm, Tuesday, March 6, 2018
ASHLAND, Ohio (AP) An 8-year-old boy loaded a rifle, repeatedly shot his 4-year-old sister at home and then informed their mother, who left work to check the girl's injuries, cleaned up a bloody bed cover and returned to work, leaving the children alone again, a prosecutor said.
Alyssa Edwards, 27, is jailed on child endangerment charges related to the Saturday shooting in Hayesville, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) southwest of Cleveland.
Her attorney, Donald Wick, said Tuesday that he had just received the case and couldn't yet comment.
An arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday. Edwards tearfully appeared for court Monday via video and said that there was no information that a magistrate needed to consider before he set her bond at $30,000, The Ashland Times-Gazette reported .
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Prosecutor-After-boy-8-shot-sister-mom-went-12731272.php
Mother, Alyssa Edwards
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Stallion
(6,473 posts)gyroscope
(1,443 posts)....another example of our insane gun laws.
.22 rifle marketed to prepubescent children:
http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/03/news/companies/guns-children/index.html
NickB79
(19,224 posts)The mom clearly violated the safe storage laws present when she allowed her son access to the firearm; hence why she is under arrest.
Funny you should link to Cricket rifles; that's the model Im planning on buying my daughter later this month.
gyroscope
(1,443 posts)Good luck. I hope she doesn't shoot you with it.
NickB79
(19,224 posts)We plink soda cans with a BB gun in the backyard, and a single-shot bolt-action .22 is safest real firearm you can buy. The good thing is that you can find specialty .22 ammo that uses lighter bullets and reduced velocity which drops it down to a power level just above a high-end pellet gun. Still lethal if you were hit just right though, which is why it would stay locked up and unloaded with my firearms.
Here in the Upper Midwest, it's not uncommon at all for 7-8 yr old kids, both boys and girls, to start hunting small game. Hell, her classmate bagged a turkey last year and brought the feathers to school for show and tell.
rainin
(3,010 posts)JI7
(89,239 posts)BumRushDaShow
(128,372 posts)By Dylan Sams / Staff Writer
Posted Mar 5, 2018 at 3:02 PM Updated Mar 5, 2018 at 4:39 PM
<...>
Ashland County Prosecutor Christopher Tunnell said that Edwards husband believed she was taking the two children to a babysitter after she and her husband both left for work. Instead, Tunnell said, she left the two children home alone.
The .22-caliber rifle was kept in a gun locker with other firearms in the home, Tunnell said. It was unclear whether it was locked. Even if it were locked, he said, the 8-year-old knew how to unlock the gun locker and was familiar with the firearm. The ammunition was stored separate from the gun, and it appears the 8-year-old was able to load the magazine and chamber the first round, Tunnell said.
Tunnell indicated Edwards was informed of the shooting of the 4-year-old by the 8-year-old around 10 a.m. while working at a nearby horse farm.
She came home, cleaned up a bed cover with blood on it, examined the 4-year-old and was aware the 4-year-old was injured at the time, Tunnell said. And despite that knowledge, clocked back in at work at 11 a.m., again leaving the 8-year-old and the 4-year-old home alone, yet again.
http://www.times-gazette.com/news/20180305/update-mom-returned-to-work-after-checking-daughters-gunshot-wound-prosecutor-says
Sancho
(9,067 posts)This is my generic response to gun threads where people are shot and killed by the dumb or criminal possession of guns. For the record, I grew up in the South and on military bases. I was taught about firearms as a child, and I grew up hunting, was a member of the NRA, and I still own guns. In the 70s, I dropped out of the NRA because they become more radical and less interested in safety and training. Some personal experiences where people I know were involved in shootings caused me to realize that anyone could obtain and posses a gun no matter how illogical it was for them to have a gun. Also, easy access to more powerful guns, guns in the hands of children, and guns that werent secured are out of control in our society. As such, heres what I now think ought to be the requirements to possess a gun. Im not debating the legal language, I just think its the reasonable way to stop the shootings. Notice, none of this restricts the type of guns sold. This is aimed at the people who shoot others, because its clear that they should never have had a gun.
1.) Anyone in possession of a gun (whether they own it or not) should have a regularly renewed license. If you want to call it a permit, certificate, or something else that's fine.
2.) To get a license, you should have a background check, and be examined by a professional for emotional and mental stability appropriate for gun possession. It might be appropriate to require that examination to be accompanied by references from family, friends, employers, etc. This check is not to subject you to a mental health diagnosis, just check on your superficial and apparent gun-worthyness.
3.) To get the license, you should be required to take a safety course and pass a test appropriate to the type of gun you want to use.
4.) To get a license, you should be over 21. Under 21, you could only use a gun under direct supervision of a licensed person and after obtaining a learners license. Your license might be restricted if you have children or criminals or other unsafe people living in your home. (If you want to argue 18 or 25 or some other age, fine. 21 makes sense to me.)
5.) If you possess a gun, you would have to carry a liability insurance policy specifically for gun ownership - and likely you would have to provide proof of appropriate storage, security, and whatever statistical reasons that emerge that would drive the costs and ability to get insurance.
6.) You could not purchase a gun or ammunition without a license, and purchases would have a waiting period.
7.) If you possess a gun without a license, you go to jail, the gun is impounded, and a judge will have to let you go (just like a DUI).
8.) No one should carry an unsecured gun (except in a locked case, unloaded) when outside of home. Guns should be secure when transporting to a shooting event without demonstrating a special need. Their license should indicate training and special carry circumstances beyond recreational shooting (security guard, etc.). If you are carrying your gun while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, you lose your gun and license.
9.) If you buy, sell, give away, or inherit a gun, your license information should be recorded.
10.) If you accidentally discharge your gun, commit a crime, get referred by a mental health professional, are served a restraining order, etc., you should lose your license and guns until reinstated by a serious relicensing process.
Most of you know that a license is no big deal. Besides a drivers license you need a license to fish, operate a boat, or many other activities. I realize these differ by state, but that is not a reason to let anyone without a bit of sense pack a semiautomatic weapon in public, on the roads, and in schools. I think we need to make it much harder for some people to have guns.
For those who want to argue legality, please reference: The Second Amendment: A Biography by Michael Waldman
DoctorJoJo
(1,134 posts)dembotoz
(16,784 posts)outside sales, had a route......shit had to get done
while i may not agree, i understand
meadowlander
(4,387 posts)She might not have been able to afford the hospital and possibly could not afford to miss work.
If the injury was obviously not severe, the gun was secured and she had reason to believe the older kid wouldn't try to harm the younger one again, then she may have balanced up being able to pay the rent over taking the younger kid immediately to the ER.
Or she might just be a crummy parent.
But you have to factor in whether she is a single parent, whether she has any kind of local support system, the severity of the injury and whether or not she could afford medical care, child care or missed work.
My parents left my brother and I home alone when we were 6 and 7 for hours every day because they couldn't afford day care. That would probably be considered child endangerment now but you have to consider whether or not society has provided parents with any reasonable alternatives.
JI7
(89,239 posts)regardless of anything else.
LisaL
(44,972 posts)Four year old was shot multiple times by her 8 year old brother after both were left home alone. And even after finding that out, mother reportedly went back to work. What else do you need to know?
meadowlander
(4,387 posts)How serious did the injury look? Did the mother have the appropriate medical knowledge to assess it?
What was the mother's financial situation? Did she have any help?
Did she have reason to think that the older kid would keep trying to injure the younger one?
It's fine to say "she's a sadistic monster who wanted her younger child to die" but it seems equally, if not more, probable that she was broke, couldn't afford the emergency room, didn't have a car to take the child, came home and checked on the injury (wouldn't a sadistic monster just have stayed at work in the first place?) either could tell that it wasn't life-threatening or didn't know enough to see how serious it was, and then weighed everything up and decided that paying the rent and buying food would help her kid more.
milestogo
(16,829 posts)LisaL
(44,972 posts)What kind of person thinks that the child doesn't need immediate medical attention after that?
dalton99a
(81,386 posts)Shot in the stomach area? No big deal. Put a Band-Aid on in.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,488 posts)The story at the link posted by the OP said the parent only took the child to the hospital after she noticed urine coming out of one of the wounds. This child had been shot four times, but apparently that was OK up to that observation!
Our country is totally going to shit when getting back to work - no matter the circumstances - is more important than caring for an injured child who probably will be traumatized for life, and who could easily have died from these wounds.
..............
christx30
(6,241 posts)Is he still in The mom may have been on her own. Needing to support the children, it's easy to see how one might feel overwhelmed. Needing to bring home as much money as you can, because "if I don't work, they don't eat." This seems to me to be someone just trying to keep her job. Trying to keep a roof over their heads. Being in survival mode for a long time can wear you down. Fatigue can lead to poor judgement and decision making.
LisaL
(44,972 posts)that husband was at work when this happened.
liberalhistorian
(20,814 posts)believed that she was taking the children to a babysitter just before they both left for work.
I agree she should be charged for leaving them alone again and not taking the girl to the hospital, but what about the father's joint responsibility to keep the guns locked up? Seems to me he should share that responsibility with the mother.
LisaL
(44,972 posts)I presume that means her bladder was injured in the shooting. Seems clear she would have died without medical attention.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,488 posts)No matter how desperate a parent is for money or even fearing for losing a job, nothing else would matter to me (or anyone I know) than getting immediate medical help for that child.
Surely anyone with even enough sense to get out of the rain would know the danger of an abdominal bullet wound.
Will be of interest to see how this case plays out. Regardless, the future of this young family is in jeopardy and those children will surely need extensive counseling.
Cold War Spook
(1,279 posts)The boy will definitely become a serial killer. The police should go around the neighborhood and see how many people will say that their pets have disappeared. Mom, better stay armed around your son.
LisaL
(44,972 posts)I find your suggestion that the solution for her to stay armed bizarre, to say the least.
Cold War Spook
(1,279 posts)What was the boy feeling? Did he even show emotion? If not, he is probably a sociopath or psychopath, though there isn't really much difference between them. The reason for police to check on pets in the area is they usually start with small animals. If I had someone living in my house that likes to shoot people, I would definitely be armed at all times.
saidsimplesimon
(7,888 posts)are precious. imo
It causes me great pain to understand I have failed to protect them.