The father of a 10-year-old girl who was shot and killed in Gary Wednesday afternoon has been charged in her death.
Mykael L. Robertson, 29 and of the 4200 block of Maryland Street, has been charged with neglect of dependent causing catastrophic injury, a Level 1 felony; neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, a Level 3 felony; neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury, a Level 5 felony; and three charges of neglect of a dependent — defendant places dependent in situation that endangers the dependent, a Level 6 felony, according to court records. He bonded out of jail Friday.
Officers at about 12:52 p.m. July 15 were sent to a house in the 4200 block of Maryland Street for an agency assist and found when they arrived medics performing CPR on a young girl who appeared to have been shot in the head, according to a probable cause affidavit. The little girl was lying between a dresser and the bed, and a locked-back Springfield XD handgun was lying at her feet, court records said.
CSI detectives on scene also observed that the spent casings were lodged in the slide portion of the gun, which typically happens when small children or others who don’t handle guns well shoot them, court records said.
During a video interview, Robertson told police he and the girl, who he said is autistic, were asleep in his bed while his other two children, a 6-year-old and 7-year-old, were asleep in another room, court records said. He woke up to walk their dog and call his girlfriend, but when he returned, he saw the girl wasn’t in bed and called her name, then saw her lying there and started chest compressions, records said.
Robertson told police that he owns a Springfield XD and a Taurus 380 and keeps them unloaded in the top dresser drawer, but he was “unaware” if they were loaded at the time, according to the affidavit. He added that the girl was autistic but that she didn’t know where the guns were or how to use them, and that he believed she “fell” and didn’t see any gun near her.
The children’s mother told police that Robertson lost his job recently and was watching them when he called her; she returned home to the scene of the shooting, records said. She told police the other children woke up to the sound of “a loud boom” and confirmed the victim was autistic but that Robertson “would never hurt the children,” records said.
Police found via search warrant the second gun with its magazine removed but directly next to it in an open dresser above where the victim lay as well as a live bullet in a garbage can, records said. There were no gun safes or gun locks in the home.
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A medical examiner in the Lake County Coroner’s office told police that the girl’s death “was self-inflicted, with no other signs of trauma and with a close-range gunshot wound to the head,” according to the affidavit.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.