A Florida father has been taken into custody after his 9-year-old son accidentally shot his 5-year-old cousin with a firearm that authorities claim was not stored properly.
Robert R. Giles faces charges of culpable negligence, according to court documents referencing Florida Statute 784.05-3. Giles has entered a plea of not guilty to the charges.
The incident occurred on March 25 when deputies from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call in Palmetto. They arrived at a residence where a young child had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest, as detailed in an arrest warrant obtained by Oxygen.
According to a spokesperson from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, the young victim is a cousin of the 9-year-old involved in the shooting, the spokesperson confirmed to Oxygen.
The arrest warrant reveals that the shooting was accidental. Investigators concluded that the 9-year-old unintentionally fired the weapon after discovering it in the main bedroom of the home.
Further details from the warrant indicate that Giles’ son reported entering his father’s bedroom in search of Pokémon pens but instead found a gun lying on the floor beneath the bed.
The boy allegedly said he intended to put the gun away, but it unintentionally fired, per the warrant. The bullet struck the 5-year-old boy’s clavicle and pierced his lung before exiting his body.
The younger child was rushed to the hospital where he was intubated for five days, per the warrant. He is currently recovering, the sheriff’s spokesperson told Oxygen.
Giles, however, told responding officers in the warrant that the Canik 9mm handgun—with a round in the chamber but without a magazine—had been stored in his nightstand next to his bed.
He was in the kitchen when he heard a loud “pop,” Giles allegedly recalled, per the warrant, then discovered the 5-year-old boy shot. Then, Giles allegedly locked the gun in a bedroom safe.
Giles provided investigators the access code to the safe where they found the weapon, along with multiple other firearms, according to the warrant.
Prior to the shooting, “The firearm was not secured in a manner that would prevent access by a minor,” investigators wrote in the warrant.
Additionally, they wrote, the 9-year-old boy “described in his interview to have located the firearm under the bed and mentioned nothing about removing it from [the] holster or any other secured location.”
Giles was booked into the Manatee County Jail on April 2, according to jail records and he was released one day later after posting a $2,500 bond.
Under the conditions of release, Giles is not allowed contact with the victim or to possess any firearms or ammunition.
An attorney for Giles did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Oxygen.
