Diamond Phillips, 29, was charged with culpable negligence involving a firearm accessible to a minor after investigators say her 4-year-old son died after accidentally shooting himself with a loaded, unsecured gun he found in her purse at their Sarasota home on June 21.
An Aug. 28 probable-cause affidavit says the boy climbed onto a stool to reach the purse on a kitchen island and pulled out a .380-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol. Investigators said forensic and autopsy information indicated he was likely looking down the barrel; a bullet fragment was found in the kitchen ceiling. They said a casing lodged in the gun’s ejection port and chamber suggested a “stovepipe” malfunction, likely caused by insufficient grip resistance and consistent with a young child firing it.
Phillips told deputies she believed the purse on the island was out of her children’s reach. She said she usually kept the gun in a purse compartment without a holster, with an extra magazine; investigators said it was loaded and unsecured that day. The affidavit says the boy’s grandmother, who was home, had told him and his 2-year-old brother not to climb onto the counter shortly before the shooting. Phillips was arrested Sept. 22, released the next day on $10,000 bond, and is due in court Nov. 6.
