Mother of 2-year-old shooting victim arrested

TEXARKANA, Arkansas (KSLA) – Charges have been filed against the mother of a 2-year-old who was shot by an 8-year-old sibling in Texarkana, Arkansas.

Texarkana, Arkansas Police Detective Phillips arrested 30-year-old Ariel Michelle Morton for first-degree endangering the welfare of a child and theft of a firearm.

She is the second person arrested in connection with the shooting, which resulted in the 2-year-old being taken to Wadley Regional Medical Center for treatment of a gunshot wound to the leg.

[RELATED: Man arrested in investigation involving 8-year-old accidentally shooting 2-year-old]

Morton's partner, 23-year-old Brayden Ray Ybarra, was previously arrested on three counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of possession of a firearm by a certain person, with the latter charge stemming from the fact that he is a felon, authorities report.

It was 8:11 a.m. on September 14 when police in Texarkana, Texas, were called to the hospital. The child's mother told authorities her 8-year-old child found the gun and accidentally shot the younger sibling at home.

The mother said Ybarra dropped her and the injured child off at the hospital and then took the eight-year-old sibling and a five-year-old child to the children's grandmother in Nash, Texas.

The injured child was flown to a hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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