10-year-old charged in fatal shooting of infant niece in St. Louis

A 10-year-old boy was charged with first-degree murder after he shot his 7-month-old niece inside a north St. Louis home where a handgun had been stored under a mattress. The infant, identified as Kiyomi Parker, died after officers rushed her to a hospital in a police SUV.

The shooting happened about 4 p.m. Friday, June 26, in the 8400 block of North Broadway. Another child, age 7, was also in the home when the boy picked up the gun and fired a shot that struck the baby in the head. The boy told investigators he knew where the gun was and had handled it before.

Prosecutors also charged the child’s father, 19-year-old Ca’Marion Pawnell of East St. Louis, Illinois, with second-degree murder, first-degree child endangerment resulting in the death of a child, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child by creating a substantial risk. Pawnell admitted the gun belonged to him and kept it under a mattress in a bedroom of the home, leaving it accessible to the children inside.

The boy will remain in Missouri’s juvenile justice system because state law does not allow a child under 12 to be tried as an adult. He was taken into custody by Missouri’s Children’s Division and sent for psychiatric evaluation, while the case moves through the juvenile division of the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court. Missouri law allows transfer hearings for some older children accused of first-degree murder, but not for someone as young as 10.