A Detroit man has been charged in connection with the non-fatal shooting of a 7-year-old Inkster boy last month, authorities said.
Antwon Tyree Williams, 22, was arraigned Wednesday in 22nd District Court in Inkster, the Wayne County District Attorney’s Office said.
He was charged with assault with intent to cause serious injury (a felony punishable by ten years in prison); discharging a firearm inside a building resulting in injury (a felony punishable by 15 years in prison); negligent discharge of a firearm resulting in injury (a misdemeanor punishable by two years in prison); and three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony (each punishable by two years in prison).
A judge set Williams’ bail at $100,000 and scheduled his next court hearing for August 21.
Williams’ attorney was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.
Authorities believe Williams was handling a gun that went off, hitting and injuring a child in the chest.
Police said they were called to a residence in the 400 block of Tobin Drive, near the intersection of Beech Daly and Cherry Hill Road, around 12:35 a.m. on July 15 for a report of a shooting.
When they arrived, they found the 7-year-old victim inside the house with a gunshot wound to the chest. Officers took the child to a hospital.
After an investigation, police arrested Williams, officials said.
“This is another case of a child being shot in a home where a gun was present,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement. “We tried pretty much everything we could to prevent this from happening. The adults failed this child.”
The case is one of a growing number of incidents in which children are shot.
This month, a 2-1/2-year-old boy from Warren shot himself in the stomach with a gun his babysitter had hidden under her pillow.
In June, a three-year-old boy from Eastpointe shot himself in the hand with his father’s unsecured gun.
In May, a six-year-old from Detroit shot himself in a home with an unsecured gun. A month earlier, an eight-year-old from Warren shot himself in the head with an unsecured gun.
Michigan law requires people to keep guns unloaded and locked with a lock or in a locked box or container when there is a reasonable belief that a minor is likely to be present. The law went into effect in mid-February.
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