ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – A mother is at large after detectives said her 2-year-old child shot themselves with her gun.
According to the North County Police Cooperative’s probable cause statement, the shooting happened on March 6. Police did not provide a more specific location.
Police responded to a hospital after being notified of a child shooting victim. Police learned the 2-year-old victim had been shot in the leg and suffered a severe calf injury.
By the time officers arrived at the hospital, the child and mother, Taiesha Campbell, had been transferred to another hospital.
Police said hospital security had detained Rodrick Miller, who came to the first hospital with Campbell.
Miller and Campbell claimed the child had been wounded in a drive-by shooting, according to police. However, detectives reviewed surveillance footage from the time and place where the alleged drive-by occurred and found no evidence of that happening.
Police said Campbell admitted that she and Miller were cleaning her gun and that they left it on the couch when they were finished. Campbell said she went up to get a snack, leaving Miller and child in the room with the gun. She said she heard the gunshot and came back to see her child had been injured.
Investigators said Campbell confessed to tossing the gun in a wooded area while she and Miller drove the child to the hospital. Police later found the firearm.
While speaking with detectives, Miller corroborated Campbell’s story, but denied being in the room when the gun was fired. Miller has a prior felony conviction and is thus not allowed to possess, own, or handle a firearm.
After going to the home where the shooting occurred, police found piece of the couch had been cut out, along with an open back containing suspected narcotics.
The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Miller with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, armed criminal action, unlawful possession of a firearm, and tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution. Campbell was charged in absentia with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, armed criminal action, and tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution.
Miller is due in court for a bond reduction hearing on March 17 and a preliminary hearing on April 9. A St. Louis Circuit Court judge signed an arrest warrant for Campbell on March 7.