Dad Claims Gun Accidentally Fired From His Hip, Killing 6-Year-Old Daughter

When an Arkansas man was charged with shooting his 6-year-old daughter in the head, he admitted blame and will spend the next few decades in prison.

It was first thought that Jordan Chadick, 45, killed his 6-year-old daughter with a gun on May 29, 2023. He was charged with first-degree murder. KATV, a local ABC station, got court papers that showed the shooting seemed to have been an accident, which is what Jordan Chadick told police at the time. But as the police looked into the shooting more, they found that Jordan Chadick had a past of violence, drug use, and drinking too much. This made them doubt his first account of what happened.

A probable cause affidavit says that when police came, they saw Jordan Chadick and his wife Melissa Chadick holding their “dead” and “covered in blood” daughter. Police say Jordan Chadick told them he “got his gun that he uses to protect his family” while he was putting his daughter to bed. He said, “I don’t know what happened” when asked how his daughter was shot.

As proof, the Glock was taken away after being found on the living room table.

Michelle Merriott, Melissa Chadick’s sister, told police that she heard Jordan Chadick tell her sister, “We’ve got to get our stories straight.” This was the day after the shooting. Plus, she told the cops that the couple had a fight earlier that day and that Melissa Chadick had told her husband to leave her house but he wouldn’t. He finally left, but bad things were about to happen that day.

Melissa Chadick was talking on the phone with Michelle Merriott when she went to the apartment of her ex-husband. Police say Michelle Merriott heard Jordan Chadick telling his wife, Melissa Chadick, “Get ready, get ready,” before Melissa Chadick saw her dead daughter and started screaming.

Michelle and Todd Merriott, who are married, also came to the scene and told cops that they could smell alcohol on Jordan Chadick’s breath. Todd Merriott was also told by Jordan Chadick that the “gun hit my hip.” Todd Merriott could also smell alcohol on Jordan Chadick’s breath, and he told the cops that he thought Chadick was also high on methamphetamine.

Several people close to the couple who are no longer together told police that Jordan Chadick had a past of abusing alcohol and methamphetamine and that he always had a gun with him whether he was drunk or high. Police heard someone say that he “put a gun to Melissa’s head.”

A neighbor of Jordan Chadick’s who went to the scene of the crime after hearing him scream said he told her, “My daughter is dead, what have I done?” He is said to have told another neighbor to “call his wife” and tell her, “I just killed our daughter.”

Police say that when they talked to Jordan Chadick, he told them “different versions of the events and circumstances” that led to the death of his daughter. Cellphone records also showed that he made three calls right after the killing, but none of them were to 911 or emergency services.

When Jordan Chadick was caught on August 1, 2023, he was charged with first-degree murder. Following his guilty plea to second-degree murder on Friday, he was given 30 years in jail by the judge.