Moorhead man pleads guilty in connection with shooting death of child

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KVRR) – A Moorhead man has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of illegally possessing a gun after a child was shot and killed with the gun in the man’s home.

According to court documents, 34 year-old Phillip Neal Jones, Jr. kept a .40 caliber pistol in his Moorhead residence. While Jones was away, a visiting 6-year-old boy found the loaded gun under a box in the kitchen. The gun went off, hitting and killing a second child.

Federal prosecutors say Jones has multiple prior felony convictions in Hennepin and Anoka Counties.

The case was investigated by Moorhead police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.