Felon Accidentally Shoots 2-Year Old In Foot

[Devrbd]

http://www.wpxi.com/news/24170745/detail.html

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. -- A 2-year-old girl accidentally shot and wounded in her New Kensington home Friday is recovering.

Police said Thaao Maurice Stewart, 26, of New Kensington, wounded the girl with a gun that police learned was stolen from a gun store in December.

The girl, who police said is Stewart’s niece, was treated and released from Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Police said Stewart initially told them that the girl was hurt "in a drive-by shooting in Ivy Alley by a man inside a black Cadillac Escalade.”

However, numerous witnesses said Stewart was behind the shooting. Stewart eventually admitted that he accidentally wounded the girl, according to New Kensington Detective Sgt. James Klein.

According to the police affidavit, Stewart said he pulled the slide back on the semiautomatic pistol at about 4 p.m. Friday. Mistakenly thinking that he had emptied it, he said he pulled the trigger to release the hammer and it fired, police said.

The bullet tore through the girl's shoe and hit her foot, police said.

Detective Sgt. Thomas Klawinski said Stewart hid the .40-caliber Smith and Wesson pistol above a ceiling tile.

The gun, police said, was reported stolen from Jolar's Armory, along Fifth Avenue in New Kensington, on Dec. 14.

Three New Kensington teens -- Daniel T. Johnson Jr., 19, Nicholas Cox, 18, and Aaron Booker, 18 -- face federal charges for the smash-and-grab burglary that netted rifles and pistols.

Klein said Stewart is related to Cox and that Cox allegedly gave Stewart the pistol.

"He told him the cops had found all of those guns and this gun was all right," Klein said.

Channel 11 News reporter Courtney Brennan talked to people who live near Stewart. They told her that he has caused trouble in the past.

"The city needs to clean it up and get rid of all the drugs and guns and everything in this town. It would probably be a little nicer of a city if they'd get rid of it all," said neighbor Matt Mallough.

Most of the rifles and pistols have been found by police and agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Stewart is charged with endangering the welfare of children, receiving stolen property and having a gun even though he is a felon. Stewart served jail time for a 2003 robbery.

On Tuesday, Stewart was being held in the Westmoreland County Jail on $50,000 cash bond.

[StraussiE WousiE]

"The city needs to clean it up and get rid of all the drugs and guns and everything in this town. It would probably be a little nicer of a city if they'd get rid of it all," said neighbor Matt Mallough.

"HELP HELP HELP HELP!!!" Those people want the city to clean up their town, while they are at home defensless. If you want something done, start letting all your neighbor know you are prepared to defend yourself.

I bet that person would feel so safe if the city said "all the guns are gone, oh, and so are the drugs, ma'am. You're fine now" Then she goes for a stroll in her nice neighborhood...