A two-year-old Florida boy shot and killed his father after finding an unsecured gun in the house, authorities said Monday. The boy’s mother is now facing criminal charges for the tragic accident.
Reggie Mabry, 26, was fatally shot in the back on May 26 while playing a video game in the home that he shared with his wife, Marie Ayala, and their three children: a five-year-old, a two-year-old, and a five-month-old infant. Mabry was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The couple’s five-year-old son told law enforcement that his two-year-old brother accidentally fired the gun that killed their father.
“The gun was not properly stored,” Orange County Sheriff John Mina said at a news conference. “In fact, it was easily accessible, even to a two-year-old, and the result is a tragedy that no one in this community can really comprehend.”
Ayala, 28, has been charged with manslaughter by culpable negligence for failing to secure the Glock handgun that was used to shoot Mabry. She was also booked for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of ammunition by a convicted felon, and violation of probation.
Both Ayala and Mabry were on probation at the time for child neglect and narcotics possession. The pair “should not even have had a gun,” according to a statement from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Ayala told investigators that the gun was usually stored under a pillow, in a box in their closet, or sometimes in a broken safe that the family owned. On the day of the shooting though, she said the Glock was in a bag that was hung on the wall but may have slipped out, according to her arrest affidavit.
A detective asked Ayala “if she thought the gun being stored in a bag, three feet above the ground, was safe with children in the room,” according to the affidavit. “She advised it was not safe. She acknowledged that any child in the room could have figured out how to get the gun out of the bag.”
The Glock, at the time, was loaded with an extended high-capacity magazine.
Ayala remained in jail on no bond Monday, according to an online jail record. Online court records showed she was being represented by the public defender’s office but no further details were provided.
A police statement confirmed that the couple’s three children were not harmed, “but they will likely carry emotional wounds forever,” it read. The children have been placed in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
The tragedy could have been prevented if the gun had been properly stored, the sheriff said.
“Now these young children have effectively lost both of their parents,” Mina said. “And a young child has to live his life knowing he shot his father.”
— With files from The Associated Press