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Man charged after boy finds loaded gun, shoots brother


Man charged after boy shoots older brother in Pahokee. (WPEC)
Man charged after boy shoots older brother in Pahokee. (WPEC)
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A man from Pahokee is facing criminal charges, seven months after authorities say a young boy found a loaded gun and used it to shoot his older brother.

The shooting happened at an apartment complex on Shirley Drive, the day after Christmas.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said four-year-old Jordan Croney found a loaded gun on a kitchen shelf and shot his seven-year-old brother, Dandre Brown, as the two played in their mother's bedroom upstairs.

Brown suffered a gunshot wound to his chest. He survived.

According to investigators, the mother of the children said she left her children home alone. She told detectives she thought her boyfriend, Alonzo Simmons, sold his gun months ago.

Croney and his sister told investigators they saw Simmons put the gun on the shelf in a kitchen cabinet, ignoring his commands to go upstairs while he put the gun on the shelf. Dandre Brown told investigators from his hospital bed that he saw Simmons carry a gun in the apartment.

Simmons, previously convicted for carrying a concealed weapon, faces charges of culpable negligence, unlawful storage of a firearm, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Deputies arrested the boy's mother, Frandreka Washington, last December on two counts of aggravated child neglect.

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