Matthew Daniel Jenkins is charged with criminally negligent homicide after his 2 year old daughter was shot and killed early Monday Morning. Around 12:45 a.m. on Monday, the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office responded to a reported gunshot at a residence on Hancock Road NE.

Upon arrival, the mother advised her two-year-old child had suffered an accidental gunshot wound. The child was immediately transported to a local hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest and later passed away.

The Bradley County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division detectives responded to the scene and conducted a preliminary investigation.  It was then discovered that the firearm had been left unsecured and the child was able to gain access to it. 

The girls mother told investigators  she was in the kitchen fixing a snack when she heard a gunshot, and headed in the direction of where she heard it.  As she got to a hallway, she saw her husband walking out of their bedroom “with their daughter and a handgun in his hand.” She told investigators her husband told her to call 911, and he carried her to the front porch where he performed CPR until first responders arrived and took over.  The mother told investigators “the gun was in its original container in their master bedroom,” and that it was “not in a locked container of any kind.”

After consulting with the District Attorney’s Office, the father, Matthew Daniel Jenkins, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide.