Indianapolis police say 4-year-old boy found gun, fired shot that killed 3-year-old girl
By APFriday, July 30, 2010
Police: Ind. boy fired shot that killed 3-year-old
INDIANAPOLIS — A 4-year-old Indianapolis boy picked up a gun left lying on a kitchen table and fired a shot that killed the 3-year-old daughter of his father’s girlfriend, police said Friday.
After finding the gun, the boy pointed the loaded .45-caliber handgun at Aunesti Lee Allen’s head before firing, Lt. Jeff Duhamell of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said.
Police said the girl’s mother, Fiona C. Lee, 26, was home at the time of the shooting Thursday. She was arrested on charges of child neglect and drug charges after officers found cocaine and marijuana in the home. She was being held Friday at the Marion County Jail.
Friends and relatives gathered Friday afternoon outside the home, a duplex in a working class neighborhood on the near west side of the city. They brought stuffed animals and flowers for an impromptu memorial that also included candles and a white ceramic angel with an inscription in ink, “She is in the arms of angels.”
“I knew the little girl. I cried,” said John Dodd, a friend of the family, who knew the victim and her siblings. “They were playful. I’d give them some spending change,” Dodd said.
Duhamell said the 4-year-old boy was the son of Lee’s live-in boyfriend, and relatives said the two had been in a relationship for about a year. He said it was not clear who the gun belonged to.
The boyfriend has a record for a handgun offense and cocaine charge, the police spokesman said. Lee also has a record, Duhamell said, but he did not know the details. Neither turned up in a search of the Indiana Department of Correction’s online offender database.
