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4-year-old girl dies in shooting, Georgia police say. Uncle charged with murder

A man has been arrested and charged with child cruelty in a shooting that killed a 4-year-old girl in DeKalb County, Georgia, police say.
A man has been arrested and charged with child cruelty in a shooting that killed a 4-year-old girl in DeKalb County, Georgia, police say. Getty Images/iStockphoto

A 4-year-old girl is dead after she was shot at a home in DeKalb County, Georgia, this week, according to authorities.

The deadly shooting occurred just before 10 p.m. Monday, March 28, on Bouldercrest Road, police said in a news release.

A relative rushed the child, identified as Janiyah Jenkins, to a hospital where she died from her injuries on the morning of March 29, the department said. No one else was injured in the shooting.

The girl’s uncle, 27-year-old Levante Cummings, was arrested on one count of second-degree murder and child cruelty, online records show. He was booked into the DeKalb County Jail where he remains held as of Tuesday afternoon.

Police have released few details about what led up to the shooting, but a police source with knowledge of the investigation reportedly told WAGA that Jenkins had fallen asleep and left a gun in plain sight.

The shooting remains under investigation.

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This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 2:11 PM with the headline "4-year-old girl dies in shooting, Georgia police say. Uncle charged with murder."

Tanasia Kenney
Sun Herald
Tanasia is a service journalism reporter at the Charlotte Observer | CharlotteFive, working remotely from Atlanta, Georgia. She covers restaurant openings/closings in Charlotte and statewide explainers for the NC Service Journalism team. She’s been with McClatchy since 2020.
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