Terriann Caesar, a single mother of four, was shocked to discover a warhead lodged in her five-year-old daughter’s throat on Thursday.
The girl’s uncle has been arrested, claiming he was keeping a gun for a friend when it accidentally went off.
Terriann, however, disputes this explanation provided by the Police, noting that there is no evidence in her apartment to suggest there was a shooting, even if accidental.
On the night of the incident, Terriann was awakened by her daughter’s screams.
“All I know I jump out my sleep hearing [child’s name] hollering and I asked her what happened and she keep telling me the bed head,” the mother explained.
She told the News Room that she then asked her younger son what happened and he also pointed to the bed head.
The mother then discovered a minor injury to the child’s throat and initially thought that she hit it on the bed head. She then applied petroleum jelly to the small wound and gave her Panadol syrup.
“I see like a little drop of blood but not like a big thing; I didn’t think about no bullet, I just said she musy dig her neck on the bed head,” Terriann told the News Room on Friday.
According to the mother, the following morning, she noticed the child’s throat was swollen and took her to the Linden Hospital Complex.
“She wake up the morning and she said ‘mommy it hurting’ and I see it get a swelling and I go around by my cousin and ask her to check it and she said to take her to the hospital.”
While at the hospital, the single mom learned that there was ‘a foreign object’ lodged in the child’s throat. Even then, she didn’t think it would be a warhead.
It was not until after an X-ray was done that the doctors suspected it was a warhead.
“They said they gotta call the Police because they suspect is a bullet and I said no problem because I know she didn’t get shoot,” Terriann told the News Room.
Despite the Police finding a small entry wound on the child’s neck and a suspected bullet hole in the wall of the house, Terriann maintains there was no shooting in her home. The scene was processed but Police said no spent shell was recovered.
According to the Police, a neighbour reported hearing a loud explosion around 22:00 hrs on Thursday, followed by the child crying.
Later on Thursday, doctors were able to successfully remove the warhead, which was handed over for ballistics analysis.
Meanwhile, the suspect, 24-year-old taxi driver Shemar Caesar, was arrested at about 17:15 hrs on Thursday at the Mackenzie bridge.
Police also searched his apartment but nothing of evidential value was found. His hands were also swabbed for gun powder residue. The suspect and Terriann are siblings and they live in the same building but in separate apartments.
During an interview with detectives, he claimed a friend gave him the gun, and he accidentally discharged it while trying to remove the magazine.
According to the Police, the suspect was asked about the weapon and he claimed that he went at the Four Corner and gave it back to his friend.
Efforts are underway to contact the friend.
A reader in a relevant article said to use the word BULLET instead. I agree.
WARHEAD, to me, sound like a BOMB.
Other reports always use: Magazine and ??? bullets, or cartridge (s) when they find guns with ammunitions.