Boy shoots sister

Jen Lawson

Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2004 | 11:12 a.m.

A 5-year-old boy shot and wounded his 13-month-old sister Tuesday night, and the children's pregnant mother was arrested on child endangerment charges for leaving them home alone with a gun.

Instead of taking the injured toddler to a hospital when she returned home, Julia Jackson, 25, drove her to a relative's house, Lt. Brad Simpson of Metro's abuse and neglect section said.

"She had a child that had been shot and she was trying to protect herself from being arrested," he said. "That behavior in and of itself led us to arrest her for felony child endangerment, in addition to the fact that she left them alone."

Jackson had been wanted by police on a felony warrant and several traffic warrants.

Her daughter, Anjuhnae McDaniel, was shot in the buttocks and was in good condition this morning at University Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

It was not clear this morning how long Anjuhnae and her brothers, ages 5 and 4, were home alone in their apartment in the 800 block of F Street, Simpson said. Jackson told police she only stepped out for a few minutes, he said.

While she was gone her 5-year-old son apparently found a .25-caliber pistol and fired it.

"We haven't determined if there was any intent" to shoot the baby, Simpson said.

"The culture of our society exposes kids to so much violence," Simpson said. "They see a gun and think it's something they can play with."

When Jackson returned home about 6:30 p.m. and found Anjuhnae with a gunshot wound, she started calling family members. Jackson's father came to the apartment and the girl was driven to a home in the 5800 block of West Lake Mead Boulevard.

Anjuhnae was brought into University Medical Center's trauma unit about 7:30 p.m., Simpson said.

She is expected to be kept in the hospital under observation for 24 hours and released into the custody of court authorities.

A short time after the baby was taken to the hospital, police found Jackson sitting in a car in front of a relative's house and arrested her.

In addition to the three children who were left alone, Simpson said Jackson has two other children and is expecting another.

Child welfare authorities said this morning they were investigating this morning whether they had any prior contact with Jackson regarding the care of her children.

Metro Police have investigated seven child-involved shootings, including Tuesday's incident, since March of 2003, Simpson said.

Four of the shootings were accidental and involved victims under the age of 10. The rest involved teenagers -- one was a teenage girl shot intentionally by her brother and two were intentional shootings by strangers.