Malachi Scott, a 9-year-old Black male from Little Rock, Arkansas, died on December 21, 2016. His death followed what police described as an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound at a residence in the city; he was taken to Arkansas Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a few hours later. Initial reports did not release his name, but subsequent memorial and obituary notices identified him as Malachi Jamal Scott and confirmed the date and place.
According to contemporaneous accounts, officers were dispatched to a home on Romine Road on the afternoon of December 21, where they found Malachi in the living room with a gunshot wound to the head and a handgun lying on his chest. His 11-year-old brother told police the two were home alone when Malachi retrieved a gun in the house and began playing with it before it discharged; the brother ran to a neighbor to call for help.
Reporting at the time characterized the shooting as accidental, and there were no announcements of arrests or named suspects connected to the case in those initial police and media accounts. A family fundraiser posted two days later likewise described the event as a tragic accident at home.
