Mom Charged with Murder After Daughter, 5, Shoots Self (ABC News)

A New Orleans mother has been charged with murder after her 5-year-old daughter shot herself in the head while home alone in a locked bedroom.

Laderika Smith, 28, was booked Sunday on charges of second-degree murder, after the girl was taken off life support hours after her mother returned home to find the girl dead, police said.

“[Smith] locked her daughter inside the residence for a short period of time while she went to the store,” New Orleans Police spokeswoman Hilal Williams said in a statement.

While her mother was out, the girl discovered a loaded .38-caliber revolver and shot herself.

This is horrible beyond belief, but . . . Murder?

American Heritage Dictionary:

noun
the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.

Merriam-Webster:

the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought.

AP:

Murder is malicious, premeditated homicide. Some states define certain homicides as murder if the killing occurs in the course of armed robbery, rape, etc.

I’m hardly defending a woman who leaves her kid alone with a .38, but . . . Murder???

Do they have some sort of unique definition in Louisiana that I’m not aware of?