On the late evening of Tuesday, May 26, 2020, 9-year-old Rajib Ingram died after a handgun discharged while he was alone in his bedroom in the East Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. Rajib had been making videos on his phone and was handling the firearm when it went off, striking his face. His 15-year-old brother heard the shot and discovered him; Rajib was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead.

The handgun was missing after the shooting. Police focused their investigation on 30-year-old Syiede Booker, the boyfriend of Rajib’s mother, Ashley Hicks, after Hicks told officers the firearm belonged to Booker. A police report says Hicks instructed her older son to move the gun, which he then threw into Hicks’s bedroom. Booker initially denied ownership and lied to investigators; authorities later concluded he had left the weapon accessible to the children.

Two days after the death, Booker was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child, recklessly endangering another person, unsworn falsification, tampering with evidence, and obstruction of justice. He was held on $1.1 million bail.

If anyone has information about how the firearm came to be accessible in that home, please share what you know.