9-year-old shot by another child after the 2 women watching them left 4 kids by themselves to go grocery shopping

A 2nd Wisconsin pistillate linked to the shooting of a 9-year-old miss volition debar situation time.

Vanta'jah Westmoreland, 24, pleaded blameworthy to 3 counts of being enactment to a transgression of child neglect and was sentenced to 2 years of probation connected Friday. The charges were brought against Westmoreland successful transportation with the shooting of a 9-year-old girl, who was with 3 different children astatine a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, flat connected Nov. 8, 2024. According to a transgression ailment reviewed by Law&Crime, Westmoreland was the woman of 29-year-old Nakia Piggee, who is the parent of the miss who was shot.

Police said the 2 adults near the 9-year-old, an 8-year-old, a 4-year-old, and a disabled 2-year-old by themselves for astir 40 minutes to spell market shopping.

Officers arrived astatine the country aft Piggee called 911 to study the shooting. Initially, Piggee said she did not cognize who changeable her daughter, who was recovered lying face-down connected the level of the home's surviving room. She had a gunshot coiled to her precocious close back, but was conscious and capable to communicate.

When constabulary spoke to the victim, she indicated that the shooter was a male, past pointed astatine the 4-year-old lad who was successful the flat with her, sitting connected a seat successful the kitchen. The miss began to "gurgle and cough," truthful an serviceman applied a thorax seal to her coiled and she was transported to the hospital. She yet survived.

Police questioned Westmoreland, who identified herself arsenic Piggee's girlfriend. She told constabulary that a 16-year-old neighbour took the weapon retired of the flat and brought it to his flat "so nary 1 would get successful trouble."

While conducting a protective sweep, officers realized the location was "filthy and littered with food, soiled clothes, cigarettes' ashes, and integrative bottles." When they got to the bedroom, they recovered "liquor bottles, ashes, ash trays, and diapers."

Inside the chamber was a crib containing the 2-year-old, who had casts connected each arm, a feeding conduit successful his stomach, and supplemental oxygen to breathe. In the aforesaid room, constabulary recovered a 9 mm Hornady Luger casing connected the level betwixt the crib and a dirty, queen-size mattress, arsenic good arsenic a bloody T-shirt with "an evident slug strike" and a bloody blanket. The gun, a 9 mm HiPoint, was aboriginal recovered successful the neighbor's apartment, wrapped successful a brace of achromatic sweatpants.

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Police asked the 4-year-old lad astir the gun, and helium said his "aunt Kiki," a nickname utilized by Piggee, kept it nether the bed. The lad reportedly told his parent that it was the 8-year-old miss who fired the shot. The 8-year-old told constabulary that she took the weapon from the lad aft helium recovered it nether the mattress and past the weapon went off. Police asked her however she was holding the weapon erstwhile that happened, and she "seemed tense and paused" earlier blaming the shooting connected the boy.

Detectives wrote successful the ailment that determination was nary grounds of immoderate firearm information items, specified arsenic a "trigger fastener oregon a firearm safe." Piggee aboriginal said the weapon was owned by Westmoreland and kept nether the mattress, but she "forgot it was there."

Local Fox affiliate WITI reported that Piggee pleaded blameworthy successful April 2025 to 2 misdemeanor counts of kid neglect and was sentenced to 2 years of probation.