SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio woman was arrested months after her 2-year-old daughter accidentally shot and killed herself, records show.
Jessica Cantu, 35, was charged with child endangerment following the February shooting of her toddler, Julez Gonzalez, at a home in the 100 block of Dublin Street on the South Side, according to records with the Bexar County Jail. She was booked into the jail on Friday.
San Antonio police said the child was in a room, lying on a bed and watching a movie on a cell phone. Cantu was in the bathroom with her other daughter, 4, when she heard a loud “pop,” she told police.
Cantu said she ran out of the bathroom and found the girl with a gunshot wound to the head. She was taken to University Hospital in critical condition, but she died on Feb. 27.
The woman initially told police that the girl shot herself with a gun belonging to her boyfriend, Joshua Ramirez, the affidavit states. She also told investigators that she was unaware that Ramirez had a gun and was unaware there was a gun in the house.
Cantu said that before the shooting, Ramirez was packing a duffel bag on the bed that the child was on. He was packing the bag, she told police, because he was planning on selling drugs at a local motel that night.
Ramirez, who fled the scene before officers arrived, was the first person arrested in the case.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that Ramirez, a convicted felon, had a Glock Model 35, .40-caliber handgun inside the duffel bag. He was arrested in March and charged with felon in possession of a firearm.
But Cantu’s affidavit states that she bought the gun that the child used, and she was aware that Ramirez carried a firearm.
Police said that Cantu “intentionally and knowingly placed the victim in imminent danger by allowing her to be in the presence of a handgun in possession of a felon with a violent criminal history.”
Records show that Cantu was also charged with possession and unauthorized use of a vehicle this year.
