NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TCN) — A 23-year-old man surrendered to police a day after his 3-year-old son fatally shot himself in the head with the man’s pistol.
On Wednesday, July 24, just before 9 p.m., Metro Nashville Police Department officers were called to an apartment on Oakwood Avenue regarding a child shot. The boy, Aydeen Pruitt, was taken to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased. The boy’s mother told police that she heard a “loud pop” from her bedroom, and moments later, Dandre Pruitt ran out and drove away in a Kia Soul.
Police began searching for Pruitt to question him about the shooting that led to his toddler son’s death.
Pruitt worked with a pastor and turned himself in at a church on the afternoon of Thursday, July 25.
According to Metro Nashville Police, Pruitt told detectives he took out a pistol from his pocket and put it on his bedroom floor. He allegedly claimed he “didn’t realize Aydeen was present in the bedroom when the child picked up the gun and shot himself in the head.”
Pruitt was arrested and charged with reckless homicide, child neglect, and evidence tampering.
WKRN-TV reports Pruitt’s daughter, Taliyah Frazier, was killed in a drive-by shooting last year. On May 30, 2023, Frazier was in the back seat of a Chevrolet Malibu when a car pulled up at a red light and someone in the vehicle started shooting. Police said it was a “non-random, targeted shooting.”
Frazier, 4, was shot in the head and died the next day. Two-year-old twin boys were in the car, too. One boy sustained a non-critical wound to the head, while the other child was uninjured.
Metro Nashville Police said Pruitt drove 3 miles to a store where the children’s mother worked and called paramedics from there. Four people were arrested in connection with her death.