US man pleads not guilty after two-year-old daughter accidentally shoots herself
A Michigan man whose two-year-old daughter shot herself in the head with his revolver last week pleaded not guilty after becoming the first person charged under the state’s new law requiring safe storage of guns.
Michael Tolbert, 44, of Flint, was arraigned on nine felony charges including single counts of first-degree child abuse and violation of Michigan’s gun storage law, said John Potbury, Genesee county’s deputy chief assistant prosecuting attorney.
Tolbert’s daughter remained hospitalized Wednesday in critical condition from the 14 February shooting, Potbury said. The child shot herself the day after Michigan’s new safe storage gun law took effect.
A not guilty plea was entered Monday on behalf of Tolbert, who also faces one count each of being a felon in possession of a firearm, being a felon in possession of ammunition, lying to a peace officer in a violent crime investigation and four counts of felony firearm, Potbury said.
He became the first person charged with violating the law, which took effect on 13 February, the first anniversary of when a gunman entered a classroom at Michigan State University, killing two students and leaving others critically wounded.
The law took effect a week after a Michigan jury convicted a shooter’s mother of involuntary manslaughter, making her the first parent in the US to be held responsible for a child carrying out a mass school shooting. Gun accessibility was an issue in the trial and investigators say Jennifer and James Crumbley failed to properly secure the gun. James Crumbley faces trial on the same charge next month in the 2021 shooting at Oxford high school that killed four students.
Flint police learned of the twoyear-old accidentally shooting herself on Valentine’s Day after Tolbert took the girl to a hospital. Officers found two guns in the bedroom of the man’s home: a revolver used in the shooting and a semiautomatic pistol. Both were unsecured and loaded. Police said they found no gun locks or safes in the bedroom.