3-Year-Old Florida Boy Fatally Shoots Self With Uncle’s Gun

The uncle was charged with culpable negligence after the child found the gun in his backpack.

The uncle, Jeffrey D. Walker, 29, purchased the gun at a Tampa-area gun shop and has a concealed weapons permit, authorities said.

Walker was booked early Wednesday. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had an attorney. His phone number was not listed and jail records didn’t give a lawyer for him.

The boy found the 9 mm handgun in a backpack, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter. The uncle was not in the room when the shooting happened, but the child’s parents – Jasmine Bell, 21, and Trentin Speights, 22 – were there when the gun fired, Carter said.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.