ST. LOUIS — A 12-year-old girl and her 14-year-old cousin were killed in what their family is calling an accidental shooting caught on an Instagram live stream overnight in downtown St. Louis.
Police are investigating the shooting, which happened just after 2 a.m. at an apartment complex near 10th and Spruce streets, as a murder-suicide.
Shinise Harvey said she let her 12-year-old daughter, Paris Harvey, go to a family party there to celebrate March birthdays.
"Everybody was getting together to celebrate, and so the younger kids, they got a bed and breakfast," Shinise Harvey said of the party at the Cupples Apartment Complex. "They were making a video and she was playing with the gun, but it went off and hit him.
"She dropped the gun, and it fell, and it went off to my knowledge, and then when she picked it up, she picked it up by the barrel and it went off and that's all I know...It was not a suicide. It was just a freak accident."
Police say the boy was shot first, and the little girl was shot with the same gun.
The boy was previously identified as a 13-year-old, but he had just celebrated a birthday. His mother did not attend the party, either, according to a family member who answered the door at her house but did not want to be identified.
Shinise Harvey said her nephew was also her godson, and she didn't know who the gun belonged to or how her daughter found it.
"With all that family there, they should have basically made sure she was OK," Shinise Harvey said. "Everybody should have stuck with somebody.
"We've got to look out for each other. We're a family. And they're young."
Police are still investigating who owned the gun, and whether anyone can be charged for the shooting.
It was an emotional scene overnight, as family and friends of the victims gathered at the scene.
The shooting was one of several incidents comprising a violent night in St. Louis. At about 4 a.m., an officer shot a man who had stabbed another officer in the vest during a domestic disturbance call on Genevieve Avenue. The officer was not injured.
Also overnight, a man was found shot in the head in a car on the 1000 block of Theobald Street. At least 31 people have been shot and killed in St. Louis this year, according to the police department.