Malachi Hemphill, 13, fatally shot himself while trying to put a clip in a gun while live streaming on social media [right]
Malachi Hemphill, 13, was rushed to Gracy Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where he was pronounced dead, news station WXIA reported.
Stephens said she had just watched her son take out the trash moments before he went into his bedroom to record the video on Instagram Live.
When Stephens heard the gun go off, she and her daughter ran upstairs to his bedroom, but the door was locked.
Malachi was an avid poster on Instagram
“We kicked in the door. We found him just laying there in a pool of blood,” Stephens said. “My daughter screamed and said, ‘Mom, turn his phone off!’ As I proceeded to look at his phone, he was on Instagram Live.”
The tragic teen’s mother said she has been told that someone asked why he didn’t have a clip in the gun and told him to put a clip in the gun: “As he put the clip in the gun, that is when the gun went off,” she said.
Shaniqua Stephens isn’t completely sure how her son got hold of the gun. It is believed, Malachi got the gun from a friend who got it from someone else. Detectives told her they are working to find out who originally had the gun and passed it to the friend.
She said some of her son’s who had been watching the livestream ran over to their home.
“There was about 40 to 50 kids outside,” she said. “I guess these were the kids that were watching on Live that live in the area. I guess when it happened, they just ran over here.”
Forest Park police are investigating how Malachi got hold of the gun.
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