CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two weeks after a toddler died of a gunshot wound in east Charlotte, police say his mother is now in custody.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said Wednesday 31-year-old Candise turned herself in the previous day. Officers had obtained arrest warrants for her hours after her 3-year-old son died on Feb. 21, 2024.
Police responded to a home along Eastway Drive near Central Avenue that day after the toddler reportedly got to an unsecured handgun and apparently shot himself. Despite attempts at lifesaving treatment from Medic, CMPD said the boy died at the scene.
“Bullets don’t discriminate," CMPD Lieutenant Kevin Pietrus said during a news briefing that evening. "They don’t know if it’s a young person or an old person that they’re aimed at. They don’t know if it’s a man or a woman and they don’t know if it was intentionally fired or not intentionally fired. It is against the law for a gun owner to store a gun in a way that gives a minor access to it."
CMPD offers free gun locks and keys to gun owners at its headquarters or at any divisional office.
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