BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
UPDATE – We are adding a link to a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses. – Fundraiser by Ashley Alexander : Ja’brailyn’s burial costs (gofundme.com)
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with information from 19th Judicial District Attorney CJ Robinson.
A Prattville seven-year-old who found a loaded weapon in their residence earlier today is deceased, officials tell the EAN. The matter is under investigation, but it appears the child fired the weapon himself, perhaps accidentally.
This incident occurred around noon today at the Covered Bridge Apartments in Prattville. Investigators are still on scene, according to Prattville Police Chief Mark Thompson. Further information is not available at this time.
This marks the second death of a young child related to a loaded, unsecured weapon, as a two-year-old died in Wetumpka last week from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Further details will be forthcoming. Please, if you have a loaded weapon in the home, and children are present, take extra precautions. Any child who dies in this situation is terrible. Two such tragedies in one week is hard to understand.
Both of these deaths fall in the 19th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which covers Autauga, Chilton and Elmore counties.
We reached out to District Attorney CJ Robinson. He explained that both of these cases are being investigated, and the victims will have an autopsy. The findings of the police investigations will be put before a Grand Jury in each County, and criminal charges could be filed.
“In these cases, we authorize autopsies and the facts of the death investigation will be presented to a grand jury,” he said. “That doesn’t automatically mean charges will be filed, but after hearing the results of an investigation by law enforcement, if the situation was extreme, then criminally negligent homicide or manslaughter could apply.”
He went on to say, “However, in my 16 years of prosecuting most of these horrible occurrences, most are classified as an accident with no charges to follow. But we have to take each case on its own merits and investigate each one thoroughly.”
