Two young brothers were struck — one fatally — by a stray bullet that barreled through the wall and into their family’s Las Vegas apartment as they watched “SpongeBob SquarePants” last week.
SirArmani Clark, 9, was on the couch watching the children’s cartoon with his brother, Honor Tate, 6, when a bullet burst through the wall and killed him on March 10, FOX 5 reported.
“If I could have took that bullet for them, I would have. I would rather them live without a mommy than to lose their life,” their mother, Justine Tate, told FOX 5.
The bullet struck SirArmani in the head, shattering before hitting Honor in the leg.
After hearing the gunshot, their family came running in from the other room.
“We hop up out of bed, we run into the living room. We heard Honor whimper. No sound from Armani … He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t respond to me. All I can visual at this point is my baby’s head dropping and falling to the side,” Justine recalled, tearing up.
“My baby got shot in his head,” Justine cried.
SirArmani was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where he died, while Honor is expected to recover from his injuries, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Justine and Marieal Collins had just moved their family to Las Vegas from Reno for Justine’s work about a week before the shooting.
The grieving parents said they know it will continue to be hard for Honor to move forward from the tragedy and grow up without his older brother.
“My children didn’t deserve any of this! Honor must go on with life after he has watched the most traumatizing thing a 6 year old can imagine,” Justine wrote on a GoFundMe page raising money for SirArmani’s funeral expenses.
She told FOX 5 of her younger son: “My baby is so traumatized. He doesn’t want to leave the house. Yesterday, when I went to clean his wounds, he immediately was like, ‘Mama, I want Armani.’”
The neighbor responsible for the stray bullet was arrested following the shooting.
Authorities have not shared his name but confirmed he was a convicted felon who should not have had access to a gun.
“He is out there showing off with a gun, and then pulls the trigger on the gun and kills one kid and hospitalizes another,” Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
It’s unclear what charges the neighbor will face.
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