USA: 5-year-old boy who shot 16-month-old brother tests positive for cocaine

Drug and negligence charges leading to death. This is what prosecutors told the parents of a 16-month-old boy who was shot dead by his 5-year-old older brother, according to the Lafayette Journal & Courier. Both parents were incarcerated in the Tippecanoe County Jail awaiting trial.

On March 28, in the town of Lafayette, about a hundred kilometers north of Indianapolis, Indiana, a 5-year-old boy shot Isaiah Johnson, his one-year-old younger brother, in the head, finding a gun. in a family apartment.

After several tests, prosecutors determined that the older one tested positive for cocaine, and traces of cannabis were found in the blood of his younger brother, AP News reports.

Father slept during the events

Deonta Johnson, the 27-year-old father, was sleeping in the apartment at the time of the shooting, and his mother was not at home. He said he woke up after “heard a hum” before finding his 16-month-old baby dead.

Moments after the shooting, police found 93 fentanyl tablets, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia in the apartment.

Shatia Welch, a 24-year-old mother, told officers she has a gun but usually keeps it in a secure drawer under her bed. According to her, she took the gun out of the box over the weekend before the shooting and could not remember if she locked the safe when she put it away.

Deonta Johnson has also been charged with obstruction of justice after she removed marijuana from an apartment before police arrived, prosecutors said. Law enforcement also found marijuana in the father’s car, as well as a coffee grinder with marijuana residue in the apartment.

The trial of the father is due to begin on November 28, and that of the mother on December 12, according to the Law & Crime website.