Mother faces neglect charge in daughter's gun death
Speaking with police after her 5-year-old was shot at home, an Indianapolis mother told investigators she had no experience with guns and had never fired the purple 9 mm handgun that allegedly killed her daughter, according to court documents.
Asia Turentine, 23, faces one charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in a death and another charge of neglect of a dependent, both felonies, stemming from the Dec. 31 shooting of her daughter, D'Asia.
Police were called to an apartment in the 4000 block of Newburgh Drive just after 2 p.m. Dec. 31, where they found the child with a gunshot wound to the head in the master bedroom. She was taken to Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health in critical condition.
They found the handgun on the bedroom floor and a single bullet in the wall.
Turentine told investigators that she had put her daughter and 3-year-old son down for a nap around noon after they came home from breakfast at her mother's house, according to court documents. She fell asleep on the couch while the children were napping.
She awoke to the sound of a single gunshot and her daughter's screams, according to court documents.
She told police she saw her son run out of the master bedroom and into his bedroom, and found her daughter on the floor, closing her eyes.
Turentine told investigators the children had seen her gun, but she had always told them not to touch it.
"I say 'Hot!' to let them know," she said, according to the documents. "So they know not to go near it."
But that day, she told police, she didn't put the gun on the closet shelf where she usually keeps it.
Turentine also told police she didn't know there was a round in the gun's chamber and that she thought the safety on the gun was always on. Furthermore, she had never shot the gun before, and she had no experience with guns, but she kept it in her purse, which she had thrown on her bed after breakfast, along with her jacket.
When interviewed by police, Turentine's 3-year-old son told investigators he shot his sister with the gun he'd found in his mother's purse, but that he'd never touched the gun before. Turentine told police her son played with toy guns, but that her daughter was "not interested" in firearms.
The girl was pronounced brain dead on Jan. 2 and died Jan. 3.
Turentine is expected to appear in court for an initial hearing Thursday afternoon.
Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at (317) 444-6156. Follow her on Twitter: @hollyvhays.