A six-year-old boy has shot dead his four-year-old brother, while playing with his mother’s hand gun. The two children were playing at a halfway home with their mother, 22-year-old Itiyanah Spruill, in East Orange, New Jersey, on Saturday when the accident occurred. 


The older boy was playing with her gun when he accidentally shot the younger boy, named Christopher, in the head.  The four-year-old was rushed to University Hospital in Newark, but he died around 4.30pm.

Spruill was with the boys at the time of the tragic accident. Authorities arrested her following the death of her son and charged her with endangering the welfare of a child and a weapons violation. 

Her bail was set at $310,000 and she has yet to be arraigned. nSpurill allegedly did not have custody of her two children.  Instead, they lived with their grandmother in Union County.  Spurill was enrolled in a mental health program and in the process of earning her GED, Pix11 reported. 

Locals say Spurill had lived on the block for ten days and was due to move into her own apartment in another ten days.  

The gun used in the accident belonged to the Spruill, but it is still unclear how the boy got a hold of the weapon.  According to The New York Times, Thomas S. Fennelly, chief assistant prosecutor, said that the shooting appeared to have been accidental. 

He also said that they are investigating the legal ownership of the gun.