5-year-old fatally shot 8-year-old brother after finding gun behind dad’s TV, prosecutors say

CHICAGO — A 32-year-old father has been jailed pending trial after prosecutors accused him of leaving a loaded firearm behind his tv, inside attain of his younger son, who used it to shoot one other little one lifeless.

The fees in opposition to 32-year-old Derrick Taylor mark the second time in a month that Cook dinner County prosecutors have pursued legal fees in opposition to an grownup for leaving a gun inside attain of a kid who used the weapon to kill one other little one.

Final Thursday night, March 20, Taylor made snacks for his kids, put the loaded 9-millimeter behind a TV on a low dresser in his bed room, and took a nap, prosecutors stated in a detention petition.

His spouse was not at their house within the 1400 block of East 71st Place, however the kids had been: 8-year-old Josiah Hooker and Josiah’s brothers, who ranged in age from one month to 5 years.

Round 5:20 p.m., Taylor was woke up by a loud noise and woke as much as uncover that the 5-year-old had shot Josiah behind the pinnacle, prosecutors alleged.

Taylor grabbed Josiah and ran outdoors for assist. A neighbor known as 911, and a mail provider who was making her rounds stopped to render assist. Josiah was pronounced lifeless at Comer Youngsters’s Hospital.

A Chicago police report stated the five-year-old had a laceration on his face that seemed to be a graze wound.

Choose Antara Rivera granted the state’s detention petition. Taylor is charged with little one endangerment inflicting dying and being a felon in possession of a weapon.

Court docket data present he was convicted of residential housebreaking in 2011. Prosecutors charged him with being a felon in possession of a weapon in October 2022, however that case was subsequently dropped.

Final month, prosecutors charged a 19-year-old with little one endangerment inflicting dying after a 14-year-old boy shot a 12-year-old woman inside his house.

Officers stated Tyler Wright, 19, was on digital monitoring for a pending gun case when he invited six kids to his home to smoke pot and drink alcohol earlier than all of them handed round firearms, one among which discharged, killing younger Dalilah Batey.

The 14-year-old boy accused of pulling the set off was additionally on digital monitoring, officers say.

The kids instructed police they had been smoking pot and ingesting alcohol and that Wright had given them hashish to roll, in accordance with a proffer filed by prosecutors. Gathered in Wright’s bed room, the youngsters noticed two firearms, together with one which had an prolonged journal and laser sight.

Wright and two of the youngsters, seated on Wright’s mattress, started enjoying with the weapons, prosecutors stated. One of many children pulled the journal out of 1 gun, put it again in, racked the slide, and handed it to a different little one, in accordance with the proffer.

Dalilah was sitting on the bed room ground when the gun fired whereas a 14-year-old boy performed with it on the mattress, Pekara stated. The bullet struck Dalilah above her proper eye, killing her.

When Chicago law enforcement officials arrived, Wright and the youngsters had been outdoors, and Dalilah was on the ground of his bed room subsequent to a single shell casing, in accordance with the proffer.

The police discovered two firearms in Wright’s yard. Lab checks confirmed that a kind of weapons fired the shot that killed Dalilah.

Prosecutors additionally charged the 14-year-old with involuntary manslaughter.

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