Investigation after Yonkers girl accidentally shoots herself in face

YONKERS – A 4-year-old girl accidentally shot herself in the face with a handgun Monday night, police said.

The incident was reported at 10:32 p.m. in a second-floor apartment at 484 Walnut St.

The girl was transported to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx where her condition was updated Wednesday to critical but stable in the intensive care unit, police said.

A semi-automatic handgun was recovered from inside of the apartment, police said; they are trying to determine the gun's origin. They said detectives had interviewed "numerous individuals" and the investigation was continuing.

Yellow police tape was draped Tuesday at the entrance of the building, a three-story walk-up near Doyle Park.

Anyone with information on the incident can contact the Detective Division at 914-377-7724. All calls will remain confidential.

Christyl Banks, 26, a mother of two who lives on the third floor, she said she was in her apartment watching television and heard arguing, which she thought was outside. Then she heard a gunshot, followed by screaming and other commotion. She initially thought the shooting had also taken place outside, but then learned had happened inside the building.

A resident of the neighborhood, Beverly Hernandez, said it wasn't right for the family to have a gun inside the house where a child had access to it.

"This is very tragic, very sad," she said.

Abdou Abdoulaye, 33, of the Bronx was dropping someone off at the nearby Trinity Senior apartments and said he was shocked to hear that a child was shot.

"Why didn't the parents keep the gun away?" he asked. "A child is so innocent, she doesn't know anything about a gun."

Yonkers Detective Lt. Patrick McCormack said no arrests have been made. He said investigators are focusing on the gun, where weapon came from and how it got into the apartment.

"We've interviewed many family members and people who live in the area," he said.

The Yonkers Police Department also used the occasion to remind residents of its anonymous gun tips hotline, 914-377-GUNS. A $500 reward is given for the recovery of an illegal handgun through the program.

In another effort to curb gun violence, Yonkers will receive grant money from the state's Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) program, the state announced on Tuesday. The second-year initiative mandates that law enforcement agencies use proven strategies to reduce shootings and gun-related deaths.

Yonkers will share $1,253,049 with Mount Vernon police, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office, and the county's Department of Public Safety and Probation Department, according to a press release from the state. Those agencies are required to implement "hot-spots policing, focused deterrence, CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) and street outreach workers," according to the state.

Last year Yonkers and those agencies shared $1,320,335 in grant money from the program. Information about how Yonkers spent that grant money last year was not immediately available, said Yonkers police Detective Lt. Patrick McCormack.

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