According to WSVN,
Juan Manuel Martinez Jr., 28, has been charged with culpable negligence
of a firearm for not keeping an eye on his loaded AK-47, authorities
said.
According to police, Martinez
was having a beer with his father, Juan Manuel Martinez Sr., at a family
barbeque when talk turned to hunting. Martinez Jr. brought out his
AK-47 to share, handing it to his father who then set it on a table.
A nephew of Martinez Jr. picked
up the unattended assault rifle and pulled the trigger, shooting his
grandfather in the chest and killing him.
“It’s not his fault. He didn’t
know what he was doing,” Martinez Jr. said. “He’s just a little boy. I
love him. He’s my family. I love all my family.”
Martinez added that he was unaware that his nephew was nearby.
“We heard the gun shot go off.
My father was struck in the chest before he was airlifted to the
hospital, and they told us that he passed,” he said.”I should’ve never
brought the firearm out.”
“In this particular case,
investigators informed us, that there was alcohol involved. Not only
alcohol. We also had drugs. We had cocaine,” said Miami-Dade Police
Detective Alvaro Zabaleta.
Martinez admitted to WSVN that
he had been doing drugs and drinking before the accident, saying, “I was
smoking marijuana. I was doing cocaine, and I had two beers.”
Martinez called the shooting an accident, saying no one was to blame.
“The family is not trying to
point the finger at anybody,” he said. “This is a tragic event that
occurred. We can’t say it was my fault, it was my nephew’s fault, it was
my father’s fault. It’s just a tragic event that occurred. If there was
anything I could do to bring him back, God help me I would.”
“If you are a gun owner, you
need to know that you are responsible for that gun. You’re responsible
on how to handle that gun and of the safety of the people around you,”
said Zabaleta.
Martinez Jr. was arrested, booked, and released from jail.
The 6-year-old is in the care of his family and is receiving grief counseling.
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