Lancaster girl shot after group of kids had gun in home, police say

A Lancaster girl was shot late Saturday when a group of juveniles had a gun in their possession, police said.

The victim, whose name and age were not released, was flown by helicopter to a hospital, said Capt. Dwayne Davis of the Lancaster Police Department. She is in stable but serious condition, Davis said.

“She was suffering from a serious gunshot wound,” Davis said.

The incident happened around 9 p.m. in a home in the 400 block of North French Street in Lancaster. Police found several unsupervised and unaccompanied minors in the home, with the victim of the shooting.

Police said the shooting appears to be negligent, and not an intentional act.

No charges have been filed, but police are continuing to investigate.

“At this point, there is nothing to indicate that any type of intentional wrongdoing took place, beyond the obvious occurrence of juveniles around firearms without the benefit of competent adult supervision,” Davis said.

All the juveniles were around the same age, said Scott Grant, Lancaster chief of police.

The term “juveniles” means children under age 16, Grant said. The number of children in the home when the girl was shot was not released.

Grant said detectives are still working to determine how the kids got the gun.

“We are trying to determine if the gun was brought in or it was already there,” Grant said. “What we do know is that there was a bunch of juveniles with a gun.”

Grant urged any child who sees anyone with a gun to leave the situation and call police.

“The safest solution is to remove yourself from the situation and get help,” Grant said.

Police in Lancaster dealt with another incident of a child shot after getting a gun in 2017. That child was killed.

In July 2017, Jacarion Gladden, 2, died after he took a gun left on a coffee table and shot himself, police and prosecutors said. The mother of the child and her boyfriend both are in South Carolina prisons from that incident.

The mother pleaded guilty to felony child neglect and lying to police and was sentenced to four and half years in prison. The boyfriend who left the gun out was sentenced to eight years in prison for child neglect and weapons charges.

This story was originally published January 28, 2019 at 12:20 PM with the headline "Lancaster girl shot after group of kids had gun in home, police say."