MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – In-home surveillance video showed a 3-year-old girl shooting herself at a home in southwest Miami-Dade’s Goulds area while a relative was supposed to be watching her.
Instead, police say 23-year-old Orlando Young was watching a football game. It happened Saturday at a home in the 11000 block of Southwest 220th Terrace.
The girl’s name is Serenity.
Robin Fuller, Serenity’s grandmother, said she was supposed to be under the care of her other grandmother, who was not seen in the video at the time of the shooting. Only Serenity, Young and a disabled adult are seen.
The video shows Young get up off the couch and celebrate a touchdown when the girl grabs the gun and fires it.
“It looks as if she is getting ready to pick up the gun, the gun went off and I guess the bullet went through her finger,” Fuller said.
Relatives rushed Serenity to the hospital.
“The police arrived because I called the police myself when I received the phone call and eventually the police arrived and they asked ‘Where is the baby?’” Fuller said.
Video taken from Serenity’s hospital bed shows her with a bandaged hand as she recovered. She’s since been released and is back home with her mother; Fuller said she’s in good spirits.
“They are trying to save the finger so we are just going to pray that the blood flow goes back through,” Fuller said.
Young, who was arrested on a child neglect charge after the shooting, was in bond court Monday. Fuller said the safety of her granddaughter is too important to send her back to the home again.
“I don’t want them over there ever again,” Fuller said.
Young is expected back in court again, facing more charges for getting into a fight with an inmate.