After tot fires weapon, grandmother tells court: ‘I’m not a bad person’
A grandmother said she retrieved a gun to defend her family after shots were fired into her home Sunday in Frayser, but her 3-year-old grandson got the weapon in the chaos that followed.
The 3-year-old fired her gun and wounded his 4-year-old brother in the arm, and the grandmother, 44-year-old Diane Nellums, has been charged with child abuse and neglect. She appeared in court Tuesday and said the situation was an accident.
“The baby somehow got a hold to the gun,” she said outside the courtroom. “It was in the gun box locked, but when he got a hold to it, it wasn’t. Everybody was in chaos. Everybody was running around.”
Police said officers responded to a shooting call before 8 p.m. Sunday in the 2600 block of Mirror Avenue where someone had fired into the home. Police were outside investigating when a shot was heard inside the house. Nellums carried her 4year-old grandson outside and he was taken to LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in noncritical condition. “I would have never let (anything) happen to one of my grandbabies,” she said. “Nobody is talking about the shooting, that they shot my house up. I have nowhere to live today. We’re victims, too.”
General Sessions Judge Gerald Skahan told her she will have to turn in her handgun carry permit, and that if he had the authority, he would take the gun away. He urged her to secure it.
Nellums told reporters she fired into the ground to scare off suspects.
“They shot my house up,” she said. “I didn’t ask for that. My kids (didn’t) ask for that.”
She said her mother, three of her grandchildren and her four children were present when shots were fired into the house. After she fired into the ground, she said her gun was put back in the lock box. Then, another adult picked it up and didn’t put it back in the box, she said.
“So, yes, I’m held responsible,” she said. “It’s my gun.”
She said the 3-year-old couldn’t pick up the gun.
“He put his hand there and it went straight off,” she said. “We ran (the child) straight out the door. The police worked on him right there.”
She said the wounded child was expected to be released from the hospital Tuesday.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t try to lock it,” she said. “Everything was moving so fast . ... I was trying to protect my grandbabies. ... I’m not a bad person at all.”
Nellums is due back in court in March.