25-year-old woman, who let children play inside her apartment while she was drinking with friends before a 4-year-old grabbed her gun and shot a 7-year-old boy dead, was sentenced
Kansas – In a shocking case out of Kansas, a 25-year-old woman, identified as T. Dillard, has been sentenced to over three years in prison for her role in the tragic death of a 7-year-old boy, identified as D. Gunter, who was fatally shot by a 4-year-old child who found a loaded gun inside Dillard’s apartment. What began as a gathering among friends turned into a devastating reminder of how quickly neglect and recklessness can turn fatal.
The deadly shooting took place on March 15 at an apartment complex. Dillard, according to prosecutors, was drinking alcohol with friends in her car outside the building while seven children were left unsupervised inside her apartment. Among them were 4-year-old and 7-year-old boys. It was a moment of gross neglect that spiraled into a fatal mistake. Roughly ten minutes after the children were left alone, one of them ran out of the apartment and shouted “take him to the hospital.” One of the adults rushed inside and found Gunter bleeding from his chest. She carried the boy out and stayed with him until emergency responders arrived. Gunter was later pronounced dead at the hospital. The bullet had struck him in the stomach.
Investigators quickly discovered that a 4-year-old child had found a firearm, a gun that Dillard had initially denied owning. At first, she told police she had no weapons in the apartment. But court documents, social media evidence, and witness statements contradicted her. A video recovered from Dillard’s phone showed her posing with the firearm, taken earlier that same day. A friend also told police Dillard had recently purchased a gun, and it had been seen on her kitchen counter behind her purse. Dillard later admitted to having the gun but claimed it was not easily visible. According to her, the firearm had been left on the counter after one of her friends used it to take a video, wanting to “look cute” for social media.
Dillard was initially charged with first-degree murder, but later entered a guilty plea in September to lesser charges. Prosecutors accepted the plea to involuntary manslaughter and six counts of child endangerment, acknowledging that her reckless behavior, not intent, led to Gunter’s death. During sentencing, her attorneys asked for leniency, arguing that she had no criminal history and was devastated by the outcome. The judge took those factors into account and granted her defense’s request for a sentence below the guideline minimum, citing various mitigating factors, handing down a 37-month sentence, shorter than what the prosecutors had originally pursued.
Though Dillard was not Gunter’s mother, she was responsible for the safety of every child in that apartment that night. Her decision to leave them unsupervised, paired with the reckless handling of a loaded gun, created a situation no child should ever be exposed to. Now, as Dillard begins her prison sentence, a young boy is gone, his family left to grieve a preventable tragedy—one that unfolded in minutes but changed lives forever.
