NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Police Department says the father of a four-year-old has been booked with negligent homicide after the child was killed in an accidental shooting Thursday night.
The victim has been identified by family members as Keith Jermal Jones Jr. His father, who family say turned himself in, was identified as Keith Jones Sr. The exact circumstances surrounding what happened weren't immediately known.
"He went down there to turn himself in," said Tomaka Stokes, the child's grandmother. "He felt like it was his fault. It was a freak accident. It just wasn't supposed to happen."
Officers responded to a call of a person shot around 10:30 p.m. Thursday in the 6900 block of Lake Kenilworth. When officers arrived at the scene, they found Jones Jr. with a gunshot wound. He was taken to hospital where he later died.
Investigators believe that the incident actually happened at a home in the 7000 block of Martin Drive.
"I don't know what happened," said Kwan Wynn, Jones' mother. "I just got a phone call from his dad saying that he had been shot... A gun was in the house and he found it."
Jones Sr. was booked into the Orleans Parish Justice Center on one count of negligent homicide.
"Please be careful and watch the babies in the house around guns," said Stokes" It just takes a few minutes and your whole life will be upside down."
Family members say that Jones Jr. was supposed to begin Pre-K at Capdau in just two weeks.
Anyone with any information on this incident is asked to call the NOPD Special Victims Section Child Abuse Unit at 504-658-5523.
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