Washington - Like typical siblings, Javina and Richard Holmes were tussling over the Magic Markers on Wednesday morning before school, both wanting to use the same colour. Then eight-year-old Richard found a sawn-off shotgun and tried to scare his four-year-old sister by playfully poking her with it, Washington police said. As she struggled to take it away from him, the gun went off.
Pellets pierced Javina in the neck and the upper body, killing her instantly. Her 15-year-old brother, Jabar, who was in another room when the shot was fired, ran out of the house holding Javina in his arms, sobbing and yelling.
The accident left police officers in tears and the children's mother, who was at work at the time, in disbelief. "My kids were in the tub when I got ready to go to work," Ms Sharon Holmes said. "My house was normal." Then police showed up at her job, at Brent Elementary School in south-east Washington, and delivered the horrible news.
A spokesman said police will probably charge Jabar Holmes with possession of a prohibited weapon.