A 4-year-old boy is dead after shooting himself in the face with a gun found in his mother’s purse.
As a result, a Florida woman has been charged with negligence.
Diamond Phillips, 29, was arrested Tuesday, according to court records viewed by PEOPLE, following the death of her son on June 21.
According to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to a Sarasota home after a report of a child shooting himself.
Deputies, per the report, alleged in an affidavit that Phillips’ son climbed onto a stool and reached into his mother’s purse. He pulled a .380 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol from the purse before shooting himself in the face.
Investigators said the 4-year-old was likely looking down the barrel of the handgun when it went off, and that a bullet fragment was found in the kitchen ceiling.
Phillips told deputies at the scene that she kept her gun in a small compartment inside her purse, per the affidavit. She also said that she had placed the purse in the middle of the kitchen island, which she believed was not accessible to her kids.
The affidavit also claims that the boy’s grandmother, who was home at the time of the incident, told the 4-year-old — as well as his 2-year-old brother, who was in the kitchen at the time — not to climb on the counter shortly before the gun went off.
