A 10-year-old Augusta boy shot his older brother in the chest while playing with a gun Wednesday afternoon, resulting in charges against the mother. Sharise Nicole Sims, 34, was jailed Wednesday for two counts of cruelty to children in the second degree, even as her 13-year-old son was undergoing surgery at Augusta University Medical Center, authorities said. The incident happened just after noon Wednesday at the family’s residence at Norris Place Apartments on Murphy Street in Augusta. Authorities say Sims had left a 9mm Taurus pistol in her purse, even though her 10-year-old son had been caught playing with it before. The mother left the living room, and the younger son reportedly retrieved the pistol and shot his older brother in the chest. The 13-year-old boy suffered a collapsed lung and required a chest tube to be inserted. On Wednesday afternoon, he was taken for surgery in the operating room, authorities said. The shooting comes just a month after a 4-year-old Augusta boy died from injuries suffered when he accidentally shot himself in the head with an unsecured gun, leading to charges against his mother and older brother. That incident also happened at Norris Place Apartments on the same block at this week’s shooting.Norris Place Apartments Zykee Ryans died Nov. 25. He had found a gun laying around a residence packed with children on the evening of Nov. 12 inside the apartment on Murphy Road, authorities said. The teen who left the unsecured gun lying around the residence, 19-year-old Ladarion Ryans, was also jailed. Both he and his mother, 35-year-old Brittany Senita Ryans, are charged with murder in the second degree and child cruelty.
Greg Rickabaugh is an award-winning crime reporter in the Augusta-Aiken area with experience writing for The Augusta Chronicle, The Augusta Press and serving as publisher of The Jail Report. Rickabaugh is a 1994 graduate of the University of South Carolina and has appeared on several crime documentaries on the Investigation Discovery channel.
