St. Paul Boy, 11, Accidentally Shot In Face With Dad's Gun: Police

ST. PAUL, MN — A St. Paul man is facing criminal charges after his 11-year-old son was shot in the face by a 13-year-old girl who found the man's guns, police said. The child survived and was hospitalized in critical condition.

Martinez Castillo Lloyd, 34, faces charges of illegal gun possession and negligent storage of a gun. He could receive up to 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine if convicted.

St. Paul police responded to an apartment building just before 9 p.m. Friday on a report of a shooting.

Officers arrived at a "chaotic scene" with numerous children. They found an eleven‐year‐old with a gunshot wound to the face lying at the top of the stairs inside the apartment building, authorities said.

Medics arrived and transported the child to Regions Hospital.

Kids at the scene told police that a girl picked up a firearm, was playing with it, said "I won't shoot him," shot the boy in the head, and then fled the scene, according to the criminal complaint.

Police learned the girl lived on Charles Avenue and found her there. As the girl was being taken into custody, she stated "I accidentally shot somebody" and "I didn’t know the gun was loaded," investigators said.

Lloyd arrived at the scene of the shooting. He lives at the unit and is the father of two kids who visit frequently but do not live with him.

Lloyd's two children and a group of five other kids — ages 10 to 13 — arrived around 8:20 p.m. Lloyd left around 8:50 pm to go to a store, according to police.

While he was gone, Lloyd's son and niece went into his bedroom and retrieved two firearms; Lloyd's son grabbed the 9mm semiautomatic and the girl grabbed the revolver and started waving the guns around, according to police.

The firearms were kept in a "higher-up" unlocked drawer in a closet "that the juveniles can easily reach," the criminal complaint states.

The two kids told police they played with the firearms a dozen times last year when Lloyd was not around, and that the firearms are generally unloaded, investigators said.

Lloyd has seen them with the firearms and told them to put them back, according to police.

"According to the juvenile suspect, she last played with the firearms the previous weekend," the criminal complaint states. "She assumed that the firearms were unloaded as they usually were, and LLOYD’s son was playing with the .9mm while she was playing with the revolver."

The kids last played with the firearms a week ago, police said.

As the girl was waving the revolver around, it went off, striking the 11-year-old boy in the face, according to the criminal complaint. The girl dropped the revolver in the living room and fled the apartment, authorities said.

The other kids carried the boy to the kitchen to give him some water and then started to try to walk him outside the apartment, at which point he collapsed.

Lloyd admitted to owning the two firearms, stated that he usually took the bullets out of the firearms, and admitted that his children and suspect probably have seen him handling the firearms, according to the criminal complaint.

He also admitted that he has seen the kids playing with the firearms previously and told the kids to put the firearms back, police said.

The guns were identified as a 9mm Hellcat and a .357 revolver.