The mother of an Augusta boy who shot his brother with her unsecured gun was granted a bond Friday.
The 13-year-old, who was shot in the chest by his 10-year-old brother, remains hospitalized, said Jay Kim, attorney for the mom, Sharise Nichole Sims.
Sims, 34, has “great feelings of regret” about the incident, Kim said.
A relative of the boy said at a Friday bond hearing he is “doing OK,” but has to travel to Atlanta for four weeks for additional treatment.
Sims is charged with two counts of cruelty to children in the second degree. She has been in jail since Dec. 20, according to jail records.
The family lived in Norris Place apartments by the former Murphey Middle School on Murphey Road.
According to prior reports, authorities said Sims left her sons in the living room where she had a loaded 9 mm Taurus pistol in her purse.
The younger boy reportedly retrieved the pistol and shot his older brother.
The 13-year-old suffered a collapsed lung, had a chest tube inserted and was taken for surgery that day.
“This is a tragic situation all around,” Richmond County Superior Court Judge Amanda Heath said. Heath set Sims’ bond at $5,000.
Sims is expected to live in Aiken and can’t have supervisory authority over anyone under age 18.
The shooting happened only a month after a four-year-old shot himself in the head at the same apartment complex.
Zykee Ryans, 4, died Nov. 25 after finding an unsecured, loaded gun at a Norris Place apartment in the same block as Sims’.
The child’s brother accused of leaving the gun lying around, Ladarion CHristopher Ryans, 19, remains in jail charged with murder and five counts of cruelty to children in the second degree.
Their mother, Brittany Ryans, was arrested for murder and child cruelty but has since made bond.
Also granted release Friday was Tiffany Nicole Taylor, who was charged with child cruelty after a bystander found Taylor and her five-year-old homeless and sleeping under a wet blanket along Greene Street.
Taylor, who was charged in November, is now eight months pregnant.
Heath released Taylor, 33, on her own recognizance to live with an Augusta aunt who now has custody of the five-year-old.
