Man accidentally shot his girlfriend’s 4-year-old daughter in the face …then blamed her 5-year-old brother
He fled the house and then eventually turned himself in at a Philadelphia police station
A FOUR-YEAR-OLD girl who died after she was shot in the face was accidentally killed by her mother's boyfriend, according to police.
Maurice Phillips, 30, fled the Philadelphia home after the shooting and police were initially told the girl's five-year-old brother had accidentally pulled the trigger on Saturday afternoon.
The girl was pronounced dead at the scene five minutes later after police and paramedics arrived, and a semi-automatic pistol has been recovered from the home.
Phillips, whose Facebook cover photo features a semi-automatic pistol with a box of hollow-point bullets, later turned himself in to a police station and confessed to the shooting.
Sergeant Eric Gripp said: "After investigation, (he) admitted to accidentally shooting the victim and stated that the sibling had nothing to do with it."
Phillips and his girlfriend Tera Riddick were raising six children in the house on Mayfield Street, in the middle of one of the city's most crime ridden neighbourhoods.
According to neighbours, the couple never had arguments and Phillips would walk his children to school each morning.
On Sunday afternoon, they sat on the couple's front door next to a small memorial of candles and stuffed animals.
They also never let the children outside to play - fearing violence on the streets.
