WATERBURY, Conn. — A suspect has been arrested in the shooting of a 2-year-old Waterbury boy earlier this month.
Kharis Samuels, 20, of Waterbury, turned himself in at Waterbury Police headquarters and faced multiple charges including assault, illegal discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment.
He was also charged with illegal transfer of a weapon, criminal use of a weapon, carrying a pistol without a permit, illegal possession of a weapon in a vehicle and risk of injury to a child. Samuels is being held by police on a $750,000 bond. He will be arraigned Tuesday.
The 2-year-old victim continues to remain in stable condition and is recovering at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, according to police.
Police responded to Waterbury Hospital on June 21 for a report of a child gunshot victim who was brought to the emergency room.
The incident happened at a home on Pinecrest Drive in Waterbury, police said. The 2-year-old was reportedly shot in the abdomen.
"Knowing it was a 2-year-old is horrifying," said a neighbor after the shooting. "It's very, very sad to think of that baby having to live with what scar and trauma might have to come up for the rest of their life."
Neighbors that did not want to be identified described a chaotic scene when it happened.
"I thought I hard like a bang – a boom. It didn't sound like a gun, it didn't sound like a backfire either," another neighbor said.
Some were told to hide indoors when officers first arrived at the scene.
"One had a long gun, everybody had their guns drawn. They were hiding behind the SUVs, they had those barriers that, you know the shields to block themselves. It was just all very, very scary," said one of the neighbors.
Doug Stewart is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dstewart@fox61.com.
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