Family discusses accidental shooting

PRICHARD, Alabama (WALA) - A little swelling and two small holes on 12-year-old Juandarius Jones face are the only visible signs of the gunshot wound that sent him to the hospital Saturday.

Police said Juandarius' 15-year-old cousin accidentally shot him.

"He told me that he shot me. He shot me in my nose and it came out right here in my face," he said.

Juandarius said when he got to his grandmother's home in Prichard, she wasn't home. His cousin wanted to go see a friend on the block. That's where he first saw the gun.

"We walked down the street to his friend's house and he showed his friend the gun, and after he showed his friend the gun we walked back down to my grandmother's house," Juandarius said.

Theseven7th grader said he watched his 15-year-old cousin unload five or six bullets from the weapon by pulling back on the top of the gun. When the teenager was leaving the room, the gun went off.

"So I thought he shot himself. I didn't know until I seen all the blood coming from me," he said.

FOX10 asked Juandarius about the report of an intruder bursting through the door.

"I don't know where that come from," he said.

Juandarius said his cousin must have told the lie to police outside his presence.

Juandarius said right after the shooting, he ran to a next door neighbor to ask them to call police.

Before officers arrived, the family says the 15-year-old called another teenager and got rid of the gun. It was later found at a house in Alabama Village.

Clyretha Grayson said shortly after her grandson left her home in Mobile, she got a frightening call from Prichard.

"It wasn't a good hour. He hadn't been over there an hour when the officer called, and told me he had got shot in the face," Grayson said.

Grayson is troubled by way the investigation is being handled by police.

"But to this day, we don't know. They never did take her son to the youth center, or question him, I don't know. I guess they gone come back and question him. I really don't know what's going on," she said.

FOX10 News obtained a copy of the police report on the stolen 9 millimeter handgun involved in the case. The gun was taken from a worker's lunchbox at a construction site in Mobile four years ago. FOX10 asked the 15-year-old's mother how her son ended up with the gun.

"My son say he was walking, and we walked over something, and he said when he walked over it, it was like, 'What that is?' Then he say when he looked down he say, 'A gun,' and he picked it up, and all him and his friends, the homeboys was was playing with it, and I don't know them," Zsaqui Jones said.

Juandarius' mother is just grateful her son is alive.

"I'm looking at my son and I'm happy that he's here with us. I have no hard feelings toward his cousin. He's a child. They got their hands on the wrong toy. It's not a toy. These guns are dangerous. The outcome of firing a gun is very tragic," she said.

Prichard police said they did recover the gun from another juvenile. They said the investigation is ongoing, and charges are pending in the case.