Milwaukee shooting: Child shoots child, women accused of neglect
MILWAUKEE - Two Milwaukee women are accused of child neglect after police said a 4-year-old boy shot an 8-year-old girl on the city's far north side last week.
Prosecutors said 27-year-old Nakia Piggee and 22-year-old Vanta'jah Westmoreland had left a group of children unattended inside an apartment when the shooting happened on Friday, Nov. 8.
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It unfolded at an apartment on 75th Street, just northeast of 76th and Brown Deer. A criminal complaint states there were four kids in the apartment at the time: the 8-year-old girl who was shot, the 4-year-old boy, another 8-year-old and a 2-year-old.
Court filings said investigators later determined Piggee and Westmoreland had been watching the group of kids but left them unattended inside the apartment. They returned roughly 40 minutes later after the 8-year-old girl called and said she was bleeding.
Shooting at 75th Street apartment complex, near 76th and Brown Deer
When asked who shot her, the complaint states the victim pointed at the 4-year-old boy. The victim said she knew a gun was kept under a mattress in the bedroom, the boy grabbed it, it went off, and the boy put it back under the bed.
Investigators determined the boy had been dropped off at the apartment to be babysat minutes before Piggee and Westmoreland left, according to court filings.
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Prosecutors said the apartment was "filthy and littered with food, dirty clothes, cigarettes' ashes and plastic bottles." The bedroom was "littered further with liquor bottles, ashes, ashtrays (sic) and diapers." Police did not find any firearm safety items, such as a gun lock or safe, anywhere in the apartment.
In the bedroom, the complaint states police located the "severely disabled" 2-year-old child in a crib. Between the crib and a mattress, officers found a single bullet casing. On the floor, police found a bloody t-shirt with an apparent bullet hole in it – as well as a bloody blanket.
In custody
Piggee told police she was out for groceries when the shooting happened and claimed to not know where the kids would have gotten a gun, per the complaint. However, she later told investigators she knew there was a gun in the apartment, which belonged to Westmoreland, but "forgot it was there."
Westmoreland spoke to police at the scene. Prosecutors said she told investigators a 16-year-old boy removed the gun from the apartment after the shooting "so no one would get in trouble."
The complaint states a resident of another apartment told police she was getting ready to leave that day when her friend heard a gunshot. She said they went to see what happened, and Westmoreland handed her a gun that was wrapped in a pair of sweatpants. The gun was then put into the 16-year-old's backpack, where police found it still wrapped in the sweatpants.
Piggee and Westmoreland are each charged with three child neglect felonies and a child neglect misdemeanor. Both were due in court on Wednesday.