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Texas Man Dancing With a Gun on NYE Fatally Shot 4-Year-Old Boy: Cops

MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE

A neighbor called the police at 12:30 a.m. to report seeing someone carrying a bleeding child into a car and driving off.

Zantyler-Foster-Hooks-1_cj3epj
Arlington Police Department

A Texas man has been arrested for the manslaughter of a 4-year-old boy during a New Year’s Eve party. Police say Zantyler Foster-Hooks and three other adults were partying and dancing in an apartment when Foster-Hooks allegedly took out his gun and fired it, hitting 4-year-old Messiah Taplin. It’s not clear if Taplin and Foster-Hooks are related. A neighbor called the police around 12:30 a.m. to report seeing someone carrying a bleeding child into a car and driving off. Taplin had been taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. “What makes this case so hard [is] number one—it’s a child. Number two—it’s preventable,” Arlington police Lieutenant Chris Cook said.

Read it at CBS DFW