PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia prosecutors last week dropped charges against Nasir Baskerville. In April, police said a 5-year-old boy found and fired Baskerville’s unsecured gun in his home. The child sliced his finger on the firearm’s slide as he fired it.
Baskerville was subsequently charged with reckless endangerment, tampering with evidence and a weapons offense, but prosecutors withdrew those charges because they said the child’s family refused to go to court.
It’s a common story in Philadelphia. In the last three years, more than a dozen children have gotten their hands on firearms — some incidents have been deadly, like the July 2023 death of a 2-year-old girl. The toddler’s teenage cousin, who has special needs, fired an unsecured gun and fatally struck the girl. It happened in their grandmother’s home, and the woman, Twanda Harmon, was sentenced to nearly two years in prison…