Father faces charges after 3-year-old child gets injured playing with gun in Hialeah
Source: WPLG
Father arrested after child injured at home in Hialeah
HIALEAH, Fla. – Jansi Lopez told police officers she was preparing to spend her Saturday with her family at Amelia Earhart Park when she heard a gunshot, according to a police report released on Monday.
Lopez said that before she could run upstairs, Orlando Guzman, 26, had their 3-year-old child in his arms and they got into a pickup truck, police wrote in the report.
Lopez told police officers her child was “bleeding from the head,” according to the report.
The couple rushed to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Hialeah Urgent Care Center, at 990 W. 49th St. Doctors later sent the patient to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.
The child was “grazed by a bullet,” police said on Saturday. Guzman told police he was in the restroom when he heard the gunshot, and Lopez said she was in the kitchen cooking food to take to the park.
Police officers later arrested Guzman. Miami-Dade corrections officers booked him early Sunday morning at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Guzman appeared in court on Sunday afternoon.
“The alleged firearm was immediately adjacent to Mr. Guzman … I believe that in closing the bathroom door, Mr. Guzman was not allowing anyone else to enter, and then the child, it could be said, illegally entered to obtain that firearm,” his defense attorney said in court adding Guzman doesn’t have any priors.
Guzman is facing a third-degree felony charge of culpable negligence for leaving a loaded firearm within the reach of a minor and a second-degree misdemeanor charge for not storing a loaded firearm safely. Circuit Judge Laura Shearon Cruz ordered Guzman to stay away from his child while the case is pending.
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Republished by the Law Office of Scott A. Ferris, P.A.