HIALEAH, Fla. – Jansi Lopez told police officers she was in the kitchen 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 son 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.
Sgt. Jose Torres, a spokesman for the Hialeah Police Department, said Guzman was using the restroom when his 3-year-old son walked in, grabbed his loaded firearm, and discharged a round.
“The child, his 3-year-old son, walked in the bathroom using the unlocked door,” Torres wrote in an e-mail. “Luckily, the bullet only grazed the child’s face.”
Guzman drove his son to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Hialeah Urgent Care Center, at 990 W. 49th St., police said. Doctors later sent the boy to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.
Police officers decided to arrest 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,” an assistant public defender said in court adding Guzman didn’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 son while the case is pending.
Since the boy suffered a graze bullet wound, he received a “complete check and treatment as a precaution,” according to Torres.
Watch the unedited video of bond court
Read the arrest form’s narrative:
Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Aura Martinez contributed to this report.