Investigators allege the loaded firearm was stored beneath a mattress where a 10-year-old had previously accessed it.
A 10-year-old boy found a loaded handgun stored beneath a mattress inside a north St. Louis home on June 26, retrieved it, and fatally shot 7-month-old Kiyomi Parker in the head. The infant’s father, 19-year-old Ca’Marion Pawnell of East St. Louis, Illinois, has since been charged with second-degree murder after admitting to investigators that the gun was his and that he had placed it there himself.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers were dispatched to the 8400 block of North Broadway, near Halls Ferry Road in the city’s Baden neighborhood, shortly after 4 p.m. When they arrived and found the infant critically injured, they did not wait for an ambulance. Officers placed Kiyomi in the back seat of a police SUV, with one officer continuing life-saving measures while colleagues blocked intersections to clear a path to the hospital. The infant was pronounced dead upon arrival.
The 10-year-old was taken into custody the same day. By Saturday, June 27, he had been charged with first-degree murder in juvenile court. Local reporters noted he appears to be the youngest person in Missouri history to face a murder charge.
Court documents and a probable cause affidavit obtained by local news outlets detail how investigators pieced the case together through witness accounts and the boy’s own statements. The child told investigators he knew exactly where Pawnell kept the firearm and had previously removed and handled it on at least one prior occasion. On Friday afternoon, he retrieved the gun again and fired, striking Kiyomi in the head.
When detectives interviewed Pawnell, he confirmed he owned the weapon and had hidden it under the mattress in a bedroom of the home. A 7-year-old child was also present in the residence at the time of the shooting.
Pawnell, of East St. Louis, Illinois, faces one count of second-degree felony murder, one count of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death, and two counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child for placing the other two children at substantial risk. He is being held at the St. Louis City Justice Center without bond.
Missouri law prohibits a juvenile under 12 from being certified to stand trial as an adult, meaning the 10-year-old will remain in the juvenile court system. Homicide and child abuse detectives are jointly investigating the case. Police have not publicly disclosed the nature of the relationship between the boy and the Parker family.
