4-year-old girl dies from injuries after being shot in DeKalb County, Georgia; Uncle facing charges
By Joyce Lupiani and Zac Summers
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ATLANTA (WGCL) — A 4-year-old girl is dead and a 27-year-old man has been arrested in connection to her death, according to DeKalb County Police Department.
Police responded to a home on Bouldercrest Road Monday evening in reference to a shooting and found Janiyah Jenkins suffering from a gunshot wound. The little girl was transported to a local hospital and later died.
Jenkins’ uncle, Levante Cummings was arrested and charged with 2nd degree murder and 2nd cruelty to children. According to arrest warrants, Cummings left his handgun in “plain view and accessible to the victim.”
At least 10 children in Georgia, under the age of 11, have died due to gun violence since the start of the 2022. The independent data, gathered by Gun Violence Archive, includes the February death of another 4-year-old in DeKalb County, who accidentally shot himself in the parking lot of a grocery store.
“It’s really important that if you’re going to be a responsible gun owner in DeKalb County, we want to create a system that incentivizes and regulates you need to safely store a weapon when it’s not being in use,” said DeKalb County Commissioner Ted Terry.
Commissioner Terry represents Super District 6, the area Jenkins was shot in. He recently introduced a local ordinance that would require gun owners in the county to safely store their weapons or face penalties.
“It’s really important that if you’re going to be a responsible gun owner in DeKalb County, we want to create a system that incentivizes and regulates you need to safely store a weapon when it’s not being in use.”
“We hear few weeks or months where a young person is killed because of gun violence or accidental gun death and it’s one of the things we have the ability and evidence to show that if we pass policies that better regulate the storage of weapons as well as permitting process, we can reduce these accidental gun deaths.
Commissioner Terry’s ordinance is currently in the public and safety committee. He expects commissioners to take up the measure in late April.
Cummings first appearance in court has yet to be posted online.
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