UK: Boy cradles sister after shooting her

A 12-year-old girl has died after being allegedly shot in the head by her own brother in the UK.

The victim died in hospital at 9am today, hours after the shooting at 7.30pm last night at the family home in Gorton, Manchester.

Her 16-year-old brother has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

It is understood the boy has told officers the shooting was an accident. Police have yet to release names or say what type of weapon was involved.

Neighbours say the boy screamed “Call an ambulance” while cradling his dying sister on the pavement outside.

The family live on a run-down council estate on Wembley Road.

Before the news broke of her death, neighbour Frances Smith, 45, said: “The girl is a right little brain box. Every day from school she goes straight to the local library and stays there for two to three hours to revise and do all her schoolwork. She’s a really clever girl.”

Of her brother, she added: “The boy is a good lad. He plays with all the other lads and is not a troublemaker or in any gangs or anything.

“We are all really shocked. We can’t believe it. If you saw him with his sister, you would never believe he’d be capable of doing something like that. No way is it attempted murder.

“He came running out of his house screaming: 'Get an ambulance, I have shot my sister'. It is just a tragic accident, I think.”

Another neighbour, who said she was a family friend, also insisted it was a “tragic accident”, but would not explain more.

She said: “It’s shocking. The mum is in bits and hasn’t been home but at her daughter’s bedside all night.

“They are just a lovely family. I know it’s a terrible accident. It’s nothing gang-related or anything to do with drugs, it’s just a tragic accident.”

Neighbour Hawa Kamara, 39, said she saw the youth “cradling” his injured sister on the pavement outside their house while screaming for help.

Ms Kamara, a mother of four, said she had been working nights as a housing officer and was in bed asleep when a commotion broke out in the street.

“I was sleeping in the house when I heard someone shouting ’Call the ambulance, call the ambulance’.

“I ran downstairs and went outside. I saw the brother holding the sister on the ground, cradling her, and the two other girls were there as well. She was struggling. She had a mark on her forehead.

“There was a lot of blood on the boy’s coat and he was holding her and cradling her.

“He was shouting ’Call an ambulance’.”

Another neighbour said: “It could have been an accident. Lads often have air rifles and play with them.

“To them, they think guns are just toys.”

The brother and sister are mixed race and moved to the house three years ago with their mother and seven-year-old twin sisters, according to local reports.

Their father – their mother’s husband – does not live with them.

The boy under arrest was often seen by neighbours playing football on a school field across the road from the family home.

His sisters frequently played in the street with local children.