First-grader shot at Mississippi school to be in wheelchair for weeks, mother says; police say shooting was accidental

Published 11:17 am Tuesday, October 5, 2021

A first-grade student in Mississippi will spend weeks in a wheelchair after he was shot when another child was playing with a gun at school.

Tylin Parker was shot last week at Newton Elementary School in Newton, then airlifted to a Jackson hospital. His mother, Antoinette Evans, told WJTV-TV that her 6-year-old son had two surgeries.

Evans said she believes the school should have metal detectors.

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Tylin told the TV station that the boy with the gun was pretending to be duck hunting. He said he told the boy to stop.

“He shot me. He didn’t mean to do it,” Tylin said. “He didn’t know the gun was cocked.”

Newton Police Department labeled the shooting as accidental.

Evans said she wishes the mother of the boy who shot Tylin would apologize. She said Tylin is not mad.

” He told me he would still be his friend,” Evans said.