Friday, Dec. 10, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.
The mother who allegedly failed to get medical care for her 15-month-old daughter after her 5-year-old son shot her while the children were home alone on Tuesday routinely left her five children unsupervised, Metro Police said, and child protective services had tried to intervene.
Julia Jackson's stepfather told police that she "frequently leaves her children home alone and has been confronted by family members as a result," the police report says.
She has a substantiated history with the Clark County Department of Family Services, police said, which has investigated her for improper supervision of children, parental drug abuse and emotional abuse against a child.
When Jackson, 24, who is seven months pregnant, arrived home Tuesday and saw blood on her daughter, she allegedly didn't call 911 because she was wanted on a burglary warrant.
Police said she made several frantic calls to relatives, and after about an hour Jackson's sister -- who was also allegedly avoiding police because she had warrants -- took the toddler to University Medical Center. The girl was in good condition this morning, a hospital spokesperson said.
Jackson was later found hiding in a car and was arrested. She appeared in court Thursday morning in connection with five counts of child abuse and neglect and one count of reckless disregard for another person.
"It would be irresponsible for any parent to leave children under five in an apartment alone," Lt. Brad Simpson of Metro's abuse and neglect section said. "That's really negligent.
"And the fact that there was a loaded weapon in the house and the child had access to it -- that's like a child having a book of matches with a tub of gasoline."
Tuesday night, her 5-year-old son told detectives that his mother went to "hair store," leaving him, his brothers, ages 4 and 2, and their little sister alone in their apartment in the 800 block of F Street.
While she was gone, police said the 5-year-old found Jackson's boyfriend's .25-caliber handgun in the pocket of a jacket hanging in the closet.
When police asked him what happened, the child blamed the shooting on his 4-year-old brother, the police report says.
But the 4-year-old said he saw his brother shoot his sister, who was laying on a bed. Police said he bullet went into her upper left buttock, exited her lower left buttock and grazed her right foot.
Jackson got home after being away from an undetermined length of time and saw that her daughter was injured. She asked the boys what happened and they said she had been shot, police said.
Over the next hour Jackson and several family members and friends discussed what they should do. Jackson and her sister were wanted by police on arrest warrants and no one else wanted to take the baby to the hospital, feeling that Jackson should do it.
Jackson told police she put the gun back into the closet and called her stepfather. At one point, the police report says, she said she didn't call 911 because she didn't know the girl had suffered a gunshot wound.
Her stepfather, who told police Jackson didn't want him to call 911 from her apartment, went back to his house and called at 6:25 p.m., directing authorities to Jackson's apartment.
No one was home when police and medics arrived. Jackson called her mother from a friend's house and asked her to take the girl to the hospital but her mother refused, the police report says.
About an hour later Jackson's sister showed up at UMC's trauma unit with the little girl.
Police found Jackson hiding in the back seat of her sister's car and was arrested.
During police questioning Jackson said she knew her boyfriend's gun was in the closet and that there was a bullet in the chamber, the report says.
In addition to the three children who were left alone, police said she has two other children and is expecting another.
Although police confirmed that child protective services officials have investigated Jackson in the past, Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of Clark County Department of Family Services, would not provide further information.
State law allows her agency to comment only on cases in which a child has died or suffered a critical injury.
Coincidentally, Jackson's boyfriend, the father of the child she is expecting, was arrested on unrelated charges and both were in the prisoner waiting area at the detention center while police were finishing Jackson's arrest paperwork, the report says.
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