The child’s father, accused of failing to securely store his gun, was arrested in October for manslaughter and negligence.
A two-year-old girl shot her mother to the head while attending a videoconference meeting on August 11 in Altamonte Springs, Florida (United States). The tragedy led to the arrest of the child’s father on Tuesday, October 12. Veondre Avery, 22, is charged with negligent manslaughter and failing to safely store his gun. He was taken into custody, police and a prosecutor said.
The young man had stored his gun, loaded and without the safety catch, in a Paw Patrol backpack, a children’s television series. Their 2-month-old toddler found the gun and killed 21-year-old Shamaya Lynn while attending a Zoom meeting. “One of the girls is passed out, she was bleeding. Her camera is on, her baby is crying at the back of the room.”, described by phone one of his colleagues to the emergency services, according to a recording of the call made public by the police and transcribed by the newspaper Orlando Sentinel.
Veondre Avery, who was absent during the incident, also contacted emergency services upon his return. The police officers dispatched to the scene discovered him trying to resuscitate his companion, but the latter was pronounced dead shortly after by the paramedics. The date of the trial has not yet been determined, but he faces up to 15 years in prison, according to the Washington post (article in English).
This type of drama is sadly common in the United States. In late September, a 2-year-old boy died in Texas after finding a loaded gun in a loved one’s backpack. “Every year in the United States, hundreds of children gain access to loaded and unsecured guns” and unintentionally fire, according to a recent report from Everytown For Gun Safety, an association campaigning for better regulation of firearms. According to his count, these “unintentional shots” minors have caused 879 deaths since 2015 and 114 since January 1.