Where did gun in Clovis shooting come from? Parents of teen suspect may be liable
The incident shocked Clovis residents, both for the young ages of those involved as well as where the slaying happened.
A key question before investigators is this: Where did the gun come from? If it was taken from one of the suspects' homes, the parents (or guardian) will likely fall under legal jeopardy for unsafe storage of a firearm in a home with children present.
Opinion
California has strict rules regarding safeguarding guns from youths. If the gun used in the shooting of Caleb Quick came from the home of the 16-year-old boy, believed to be the shooter, or the 16-year-old girl, considered the driver of the getaway car, District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp will have to choose whether to bring charges against the parents.
In this case, she would be right to do so.
On the evening of April 23, Quick and two friends entered McDonald's and then talked among themselves for about 13 minutes. Watching them was a suspect dressed in a black hoodie sweatshirt, who police believe was the shooter.
When Quick and his friends left the restaurant, so did the suspect, police have said.
'Moments later, the suspect shot Quick in the side of the head at least one time shortly before 9 p.m., then fled westbound on Nees in a getaway vehicle, described as a newer white Tesla,' reported Bee staff writer Anthony Galaviz.
On May 6 Clovis police served a search warrant at a home in north Fresno and found a white Tesla believed to be the getaway vehicle. Police Chief Curt Fleming said the car was impounded, and a 'gun was also recovered from the alleged shooter's home,' Galaviz reported.
To be clear, no details about the weapon have been given yet by police. It may not belong to parents of either suspect.
But if it does, prosecutors would seem to have good grounds to bring first-degree criminal charges for unsafe storage of a weapon.
California Penal Code Section 25100(a) defines criminal storage of a firearm in the first degree as occurring when a person keeps any firearm on a premises they control and a child (or prohibited person, like an ex-felon) gains access, resulting in injury or death.
If someone is found guilty of first-degree criminal storage, that person can be sent to state prison for up to three years.
A Fresno man was arrested on suspicion of such a crime last December after a toddler got hold of his loaded firearm and fired it, killing the child's mother by accident.
Jessinya Mina, 22, was killed in an apartment at Fresno Street and San Jose Avenue. She lived there with 18-year-old Andrew Isaac Sanchez. He kept the 9mm loaded handgun in the bedroom the couple shared, where children could find it.
'While handling the firearm, the toddler was able to pull the trigger, resulting in Mina being struck,' police said.
The leading examples of parental negligence in a teen shooting were James and Jennifer Crumbley of Michigan. Their son Ethan, then 15, used a gun to kill four students and injure others at Oxford High School in November 2021. Their son took the weapon from an unlocked container at home. The parents were later convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sent to prison.
The Crumbleys' convictions marked the first time such charges had been brought against parents of a school shooter, CNN noted.
Quick was a student in Clovis Online School, and the suspects were also students in the Clovis Unified School District. Clovis Unified superintendent Corrine Folmer sent an email to district parents on Saturday saying 'that those arrested are also students in our district is a tragedy now doubled.'
Galaviz reported Fleming said Quick, who previously attended Buchanan High, and the two suspects knew one another. Fleming is confident the two suspects were at the location when the crime occurred.
The Clovis-Fresno community waits to learn more from police about the weapon used in Quick's killing. If it ends up coming from one of the suspects' homes, the parents or guardians of that person must be charged, if for no other reason than to send the message that such negligence is wrong and will not be tolerated.
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