In Las Vegas, Nevada, Jasmin Vargas was charged with two counts of “child abuse and neglect with substantial bodily harm leading to death” after she accidentally shot her 3-year old son.  Vargas was a new gun owner who was showing the gun off to her friends in the parking lot of a local apartment complex. 

According to a police report, Vargas told detectives that “she didn’t know there was a bullet in the chamber when she brandished the weapon, switched the safety off, pointed in front of her and pulled the trigger.”  She also told police that she was surprised when the gun fired because she didn’t know there was a round in the chamber.

A police lieutenant reported that this was the 10th accidental shooting investigated in Las Vegas this year, including an incident Thanksgiving Day in which a 2-year-old child found an unsecured gun and killed a 6-year-old sibling.

 Source:

Ricardo Torres-Cortez, “Police: Mother Accidentally Shot Son, 3, While Showing off Gun,” Las Vegas Sun (December 17, 2020).