Boston

Gunman IDed as Father of 7-Year-Old Girl Grazed in Dorchester Shooting

A Suffolk County prosecutor said Friday that the girl is going to be OK

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The man charged in a shooting that caused a 7-year-old girl to be grazed in the head with a bullet on Thursday in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood appeared in court Friday.

He was identified as Jesse Fuller, the girl's father. He faces numerous gun charges and is being held pending a dangerousness hearing next week.

A Suffolk County prosecutor said Friday that the girl is going to be OK. Boston police said Thursday she was not hospitalized.

The shooting took place on Talbot Avenue. Fuller's attorney said the gun accidentally went off after he got his daughter at a bus stop.

"There's a very different story that the defendant has to tell," said attorney Jessica Edwards. "This is a very unfortunate situation, but it was an accidental discharge."

Edwards said that the bullet didn't graze the girl's head, as police say, but that she was injured in an unrelated incident.

"There was what they called a laceration, a small scratch on the side of her head," Edwards said. "Any child could have that from playing."

But Amanda Casione, an assistant district attorney for Suffolk County, said in court that the child's mother had removed a piece of metal from her head.

Prosecutors say they do not think Fuller pointed the gun at his daughter intentionally.

A young girl suffered minor injuries after being grazed by a bullet in a shooting.

The shooting left Dorchester residents and city officials shaken.

"This is obviously a very tragic incident. Fortunately, the 7-year-old only has a graze," Mayor Kim Janey said Thursday.

"Thank God it is a graze, but centimeters from there, we could have been at a very different crime scene," Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said.

Lewis Polk, who lives in the neighborhood and walks with his grandson on Talbot Avenue every day, said he felt like he needed to take extra care watching over the boy.

"This neighborhood is not safe. Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan is not safe," he said.

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