Documents: Mother of Columbia boy killed by gunshot gave conflicting stories
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The mother of a 3-year-old boy who was shot dead Sunday told police conflicting stories after the child was shot, according to court documents.
Larry Brownlee Jr. was charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action and being a felon with a gun after the Sunday shooting. Brownlee was arrested Monday afternoon in Columbia, according to a Columbia Police Department release. He is being held without bond in the Boone County Jail, according to jail records.
Police were sent to a call Sunday of a crash on Blue Ridge Road and found blood inside and outside the vehicle. Officers rushed the child to a hospital, where he died.
Two adults were in the car, police say -- Brownlee and the boy's mother. The woman told officers that they had gone to get groceries and noticed a suspicious car, according to a probable cause statement. She said the car had stopped and gotten out when she heard a gunshot and saw the child had been shot, the statement says.
Investigators found blood on the steps and landing of an apartment where the mother lived, the statement says. She told police when she was interviewed again that she was in the kitchen when she heard a gunshot in the bedroom, according to the statement.
She found the boy holding his stomach and rushed him to the hospital and they were in a wreck on the way, the statement says.
The statement, which redacts names, says Brownlee was driving and was at the hospital with the woman after the shooting. A motion to set bond says he repeatedly asked the mother not to tell the police he shot her son.
Brownlee appeared in court on Tuesday by video from the jail and the court decided not to modify his bond, according to court records.. A bond investigation was ordered on Tuesday and a public defender was appointed to determine eligibility, according to Casenet. A bond hearing is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday, while a preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 2.
A vigil was held by the boys family at Grace Bible Chapel Church on Tuesday where family, friends, and community members shared stories and released balloons in remembrance of the child.
