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California Woman Arrested After Her Teenage Son Shoots Her Toddler
Police and Child and Family Services in San Bernardino are investigating the incident of gun violence and child neglect.
A California mother and her teenage son are both facing multiple felony charges after he reportedly shot his half-sibling while in a car she was driving, and neither immediately did anything about it.
Veronica Pyatt, 38, was driving in the vicinity of N. E Street and W. 16th Street in San Bernardino with her 14-year-old son and 20-month-old toddler in the backseat of the vehicle, according to a statement from the San Bernardino Police Department. The teenager was, in the words of the police, "manipulating a loaded firearm" when it discharged, striking the toddler in the right upper leg.
Though the teenager apparently informed Pyatt that the gun had gone off, she continued driving to their home, which was about a mile away, police said. When they arrived, her son threw away the gun and carried his sibling into the house while Pyatt unloaded her groceries.
Upon arriving home, Pyatt never attempted to remove the gun from her teenage son's possession, examine her toddler, the teenager. or the car for the effects of the gun going off, or call the police, according to the police report.
After Pyatt unloaded the groceries, her son reportedly told her that the toddler had been injured when the gun went off; at that point, she transported both children to the Community Hospital of San Bernardino emergency room, approximately two miles away. The staff, as is required by law, notified police that they had a gunshot victim. Since the toddler required medical attention that the Community Hospital could not provide, transportation was eventually arranged for the toddler to be moved to the Loma Linda University Medical Center on the south side of San Bernardino.
Pyatt and the teen were arrested by San Bernardino police at the Community Hospital on multiple felony charges. She was held on a $100,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday, according to KCAL CBS News 9 in Los Angeles. The teen was sent to a San Bernardino County Juvenile detention center as police and Child and Family Services continue to investigate the incident.
