The tensile strength required to pull the trigger of a 9-millimeter Kel-Tec pistol is around 5½ to 6½ pounds. This information became significant to Fresno police this week as they examined how a youngster may have shot his mother.
Authorities apprehended an 18-year-old gun owner and are investigating how a 2½-year-old toddler found the firearm and fired it once, striking and killing his mother on Friday evening.
Fresno police arrested Andrew Sanchez, the victim’s boyfriend, on accusations of felony child endangerment and felony criminal storage of a handgun.
He was released on bail, according to Lt. Paul Cervantes, commander of Fresno Police’s Street Violence Bureau, as the police continue to investigate the shooting.
“As you can imagine,” Cervantes said during a news conference this past week, “it’s difficult because we’re having to wrestle with the idea that it’s even conceivable that a 2½-year-old child would have sufficient strength to manipulate a firearm.”
Attempts to reach Sanchez were unsuccessful. Mina was the mother of an 8-month-old girl and a small boy who authorities suspect fired the gun. Both are currently staying with her parents.
According to Cervantes, the family had planned to go out last Friday evening.
The four were sitting in the bedroom of their apartment a few blocks from Fresno State University around 5:30 p.m. when the child grabbed the pistol, which was loaded with a single bullet, according to Cervantes.
Authorities say Mina, who was lying in bed, was struck in the upper body.
The exact way the toddler got at the gun is still being investigated. Cervantes saw that the firearm was not properly stored in the family bedroom.
Police arrived around 5:38 p.m. Officers arrived just as Sanchez tried to drive his dying girlfriend to a nearby trauma clinic. They stopped him outside the Butterfly Grove Apartments.
According to officials, they and paramedics provided emergency medical care to the woman and sought to bring her to the hospital. Cervantes stated that she died while en route.
Sanchez was questioned by authorities and subsequently arrested.
Cervantes stated that Sanchez had no criminal past and was not a member of a group. The circumstances surrounding his acquisition of the firearm are still being investigated.
Cervantes remarked that the rifle lacked any external safety mechanisms that could have prevented the shooting.
Cervantes asked children at the news conference to notify adults if they saw any abandoned guns.
“Unfortunately, in this case,” he commented, “we’re talking about a 2½-year-old child who probably didn’t have enough notion to understand what was happening.”
Reference: Fresno woman is fatally shot when her toddler gets hold of unattended gun, police say
