AN EIGHT-year-old boy accidentally killed his brother after shooting him in the face, police said.
The boy’s father, 29-year-old D'Onte Patterson, is now facing charges of second-degree murder and cruelty to children after being arrested on Friday night.
The shooting happened around 1pm on Friday in DeKalb County, Georgia, according to a report from local FOX affiliate WAGA-TV.
Investigators report the eight-year-old boy accidentally shot his six-year-old brother in the face in an upstairs bedroom of their home with his father’s long gun after picking it up off of the floor.
Investigators said seven children — all siblings — and four adults live in the home.
Patterson and an uncle were downstairs watching TV when they heard the shot and immediately ran up to see what had happened.
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The boy to the hospital where he died from his injuries, according to the report.
Neighbors were shattered learning of the news.
“I loved him like he was my own son, you know?” next-door neighbor Hiram McDonald told 11 Alive.
Another neighbor, Parrish Hurst, said the neighborhood often saw the children playing with each other and with other neighborhood kids out front and riding their bicycles on the quiet cul-de-sac.
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"My heart really goes out to the family for their loss. 'Cause we really have to keep an eye on our kids these days. They get into so much, so quick. So we can't take chances with our kids. So my heart goes out, and condolences, to the family for their loss,” Hurst said.
Neighbor Annette Barber lives next door on the other side of the family’s home from where McDonald lives.
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Barber said the six-year-old often played with her grandchild.
“It just hurts so bad to have to hear this, you know, of a shooting, again, of a child getting a hand on a gun,” Barber said.
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