An eight-year-old boy was fatally shot allegedly by his father while trying to protect his mother, it has been revealed.
Amir Harden’s mother, Cherish Edwards, said the little handsome boy was trying to shield her when his dad shot him in their home in Burnsville, Minnesota, USA.
‘His father tried to shoot & kill me but my son was shot instead,’ Edwards wrote on a GoFundMe page.
‘Amir tried wrestling the gun out of his father hand. I screamed for him to leave and go to the neighbors, he refused & said “mommy, im not leaving you here.”‘
The father then ‘shot himself in the head after accidentally shooting’ Amir, according to Edwards.
Speaking to CBS News, the mum said that ‘it’s an unbearable pain’.
‘It’s just unimaginable, an 8-year-old trying to wrestle the gun out of a grown man’s hand,’ she said.
Both Amir and his father Danair Harden, who is Edwards’ former partner, were rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center after the June 5 shooting but the little boy died on Saturday, June 15.
‘His 4 siblings witnessed this tragic event,’ Edwards wrote. ‘My kids are traumatized & probably will need therapy for the rest of their lives.’
The father remains hospitalized in critical condition.
The incident is under investigation by police and a city spokesperson said the father will be criminally charged if he survives the gunshot.
Danair had assaulted Edwards days before the shooting and a court had warned just hours before he was freed on $4,000 bail that he posed ‘an immediate threat’ to his family.
‘It’s a nightmare that you can’t wake up from,’ Amir’s grandfather, Deon Edwards, told CBS News.
Edwards said her ex-partner has a history of violent abuse and advised other women to flee from similar situations.
‘It doesn’t matter if he hit you 10 years ago, he’s got to leave,’ she said. ‘Next time that’d be your life or your child’s life. I think a lot of women think it’ll never be them.’