Child abuse charges added against man police say gave 8-year-old gun he used to shoot self
By Brandon Davis
Published in News on February 8, 2017 1:18 PM
Langston
MOUNT OLIVE -- The Mount Olive Police Department says the young boy who accidentally shot himself in the ankle Feb. 2, told police officers his mother's boyfriend gave him the handgun.
Jaron Mykel Langston, 27, of 1103 Maple St., was arrested on Saturday by the Goldsboro Police Department at Wayne Memorial Hospital after the 8-year-old accidentally shot himself.
Langston is charged with failure to secure a firearm from a minor and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to the Mount Olive police. He is also charged with allowing a child to use a firearm and child abuse, according to Goldsboro police.
Police Chief Tommy Brown said all of the charges were served as warrants from the Mount Olive police, but were given by Goldsboro since Langston was at the hospital upon his arrest.
The boy was taken to the hospital by his mother, Takeata Ashford, 31, of Mount Olive, the night of the incident. He had surgery on Friday, and the bullet was removed, Brown said.
"My guy interviewed the child, and the child says that the boyfriend gave the gun to him," Brown said. "The mother is saying she don't know, she wasn't in the room, so we can't definitively say that the boyfriend did hand him the firearm."
According to Wayne County court records, Ashford was lying on the couch when she heard a noise. She got up from the couch and saw her son walking down the hallway. Her son told his mother he had been shot in the foot.
Ashford told officers Langston was not home when her son shot himself, and she said her son found the handgun in a closet, according to the records.
"It's going to be up to the courts to decide whether or not they believe the little boy," Brown said. "If it goes that far, that's just something we are going to have to prove in court, unfortunately, because we got conflicting stories from several different people."
Brown said Langston bonded out on Saturday and is no longer in jail.