(Update) Toddler Who Survived a Dog Attack was Shot in the Head Last Night
In a round of awful, more-depressing-as-new-details-emerge news, a three-year-old boy — who recently survived a debilitating dog attack — is in critical but stable condition after someone shot him in the head while he slept last night in Brooklyn.
The three-year-old, who was born prematurely, was apparently recovering after being attacked by a dog several months ago. According to the New York Daily News, the child had been attacked by his mother's pitbull and had to wear a colostomy bag due to the severity of the bites.
Police are investigating where the shot came from — ABC is reporting the possibility that the bullet was a stray round that came through a window, while NY1 says the shot may have been fired by adults arguing inside the apartment. The child was apparently shot in the left side of the head while he slept in a second-floor apartment around 3:30 am.
Police have taken a 22-year-old man into custody for questioning and are currently awaiting a search warrant to investigate inside the building.
And to cap off the story, the toddler, who neighbors say is named Terell, wasn't even the only three-year-old child shot this week. A Michigan three-year-old boy fatally shot himself after he found his father's gun in a bedroom closet last Sunday, and another three-year-old was fatally shot in Georgia during a "family dispute."
Update: Twenty-two-year-old Akeem Bernard was arrested and charged in Brooklyn today with the shooting of three-year-old Tharell Edward.
Prosecutors say Bernard had kept his gun in a shoebox near the bedroom crib where Tharell slept. Tharell's mother, Nichelle Edward, was not home at the time.
Bernard allegedly told a witness not to call an ambulance until he had time to stash his gun away.
