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Tahirah Phillips, 4, was killed April 16, 2016, in her Philadelphia home.
CBS Philadelphia
A Philadelphia man is facing multiple charges, including third-degree murder, after confessing to accidentally shooting his 4-year-old daughter, who died inside her home in the Kensington neighborhood, Philly.com reports.
Other charges filed against Maurice “Stephon” Phillips, 30, early Monday are involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of children, possession of an instrument of crime and recklessly endangering another person.
Other people who were in the home at the time initially told police that the child, identified as Tahirah Phillips, was killed while her 5-year-old sibling was playing with the gun and it went off accidentally, striking the girl in her head.
“It’s a stupid, idiotic act,” homicide Capt. James Clark said Monday. “It was completely reckless.”
Phillips, Phily.com notes, initially fled the scene after the Saturday-afternoon shooting but eventually turned himself in that same evening, admitting that the other child had nothing to do with the shooting.
According to the site, Tahirah was with her six siblings—ages 13, 10, 5, 3, 1 and 7 months—watching TV and playing. Phillips is accused of walking into the room, removing the gun from its holster and “carelessly and recklessly” waving it around, Clark said. The gun went off, hitting Tahirah. The other children began screaming.
Phillips then allegedly hit his 5-year-old daughter with his fist and wiped the blood from his hand onto her shirt to “try and even more show” that the other child had fired the weapon, Clark said. Phillips then picked up Tahirah and carried her into a bedroom before calling his fiancee, telling her to come home, before changing his clothes and fleeing after she arrived.
Clark acknowledged that officials did not believe that Phillips meant to kill Tahirah, but also called his actions “grossly negligent.”
Phillips is currently being held without bail and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for May 4.
Read more at Philly.com.
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