A Virginia man has been arrested after a toddler was injured in a shooting at the same home.
In a press release issued Thursday, Jan. 8, the Norfolk Police Department identified 21-year-old Zyquay H. Fulford as the person charged in connection with the incident.
Police said the shooting happened around 9:40 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 7, at a home in the 7600 block of Sheryl Drive. Officers responded after receiving a report that a 3-year-old boy had suffered what was believed to be a gunshot wound.
The child, who has not been publicly identified, was taken to a hospital and treated for a non-life-threatening injury, authorities said.
A preliminary investigation found that the toddler located an unsecured gun inside the residence and accidentally shot himself, according to police.
WAVY, citing a police scanner, reported that the boy was shot in the face. The outlet also said responding officers placed the child’s mother in the back of a police vehicle at the scene.
A neighbor, Keyshawn Clark, told WAVY that shortly after the incident, the boy’s mother ran to his home in distress, seeking help. Clark said she initially believed her child had been stabbed.
“She’s [doing] a lot of screaming,” Clark said. “My fiancèe was talking to the mother to, like, ‘Calm down, the help is on its way. Help was on the way.’ It was crazy because I didn’t even hear no gunshot. It was, like, so quiet. … That was no stab wound. … Blood [was] everywhere, blood on the hallway, blood everywhere. So I’m praying for them.”
Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi told 13News Now that parents can face serious criminal charges in cases involving unsafe firearm access.
“Parents can be charged with felony child neglect, they can be charged with involuntary manslaughter. Those are felonies, multi-year felonies,” Fatehi said.
“If a child hurts themselves with a gun, that may or may not be a crime, but there is nothing I can do or that the justice system is going to be able to do to a parent that is going to be worse than a parent holding their dead child because they were careless with their gun,” he continued. “That is the burden any parent that has a child hurt or killed with a gun has to carry.”
Fulford was charged with child neglect and contributing, according to the Norfolk Police Department. He was taken to Norfolk City Jail and later released on bond.
