Mother Charged With Murder After 5-Year-Old Daughter Shoots Herself

New Orleans Mother, Laderika Smith has been charged with murder after her 5-year-old daughter shot herself in the head.

Smith, 28, left her 5-year-old daughter home alone, and when she returned found the girl dead from a shot to the head.

According to ABC News, Smith was booked Sunday on charges of second-degree murder, after the girl was taken off life support hours after her mother returned home to find the girl dead.

Huffington Post reported that police say her [Smith’s] negligence resulted in the death of her daughter.

New Orleans Police spokeswoman Hilal Williams said in a statement, “[Smith] locked her daughter inside the residence for a short period of time while she went to the store.”

During that time the girl had apparently found a loaded.38-caliber revolver and fatally shot herself.

Williams said, “Upon [Smith’s] return, she located the child lying on the bedroom floor with a gunshot wound to the head. Smith did confess to having a gun inside the home.”

“Lord help me, my child is dying,” one neighbor heard the woman scream, according to Louisiana newspaper The Advocate.

The report continued on to say that once a medical crew arrived, the 5-year-old girl emerged on a stretcher with a hole torn through her forehead.

The 5-year-old was then taken to a nearby hospital where she remained on life support for several hours.

This is only one of several shootings that involved children.

A 4-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his father in a friend’s home, in Arizona earlier this month.

There was also the Juneteenth Shooting where an 11-year-old boy was shot in the leg by another 15-year-old.

According to ABC News Smith (pictured to the left) has yet to be arraigned in court. She remained jailed, authorities said, and they did not believe she had retained a lawyer.

[Images via WGNO abc and YNaija.com]