A four-year-old Texas boy was shot dead by a gun-dancing party shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day, authorities said.
Little Messiah Taplin was hit in the head around 12:30 a.m. inside a house in Arlington, Texas, during a New Year’s Eve celebration that turned out to be tragic, he said. Arlington Police.
Police had responded to the home after a call reporting a shooting. When officers arrived, they saw a trail of blood leading to a keyless apartment, but no one was home, police said.
Grand Prairie police later notified Arlington police that a 4-year-old boy had been taken to the hospital in his jurisdiction and later died.
While police were still at the scene of the shootings, a car stopped in the parking lot but then tried to leave. Police stopped the vehicle and interviewed two men who were in the car.
Police say the men first claimed they were celebrating New Year’s Eve and that a stray bullet entered their apartment from outside.
One of the men admitted that they were dancing inside the apartment with a gun and that he was accidentally shot, police said.
Police later arrested 21-year-old Zantyler Foster-Hooks and put him in jail in the city of Arlington for a felony count of homicide.