Marie Ayala Orlando Florida mother charged with manslaughter after toddler son, 2, allegedly shot & killed dad with gun she was forbidden possessing.
A tragedy that could’ve been prevented… A Florida mother is facing manslaughter charges after her 2 year old son fatally shot the boy’s father after coming across the woman’s unsecured handgun.
At the time of the ‘accidental shooting,’ Reggie Mabry, 26, was playing video games at the family’s Orlando home, when the toddler was able to access the unsecured weapon.
Upon coming across the gun, the weapon went off, fatally striking the father.
‘The gun was not properly stored,’ Sheriff John Mina with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said during a Monday press conference. ‘In fact, it was easily accessible, even to a 2-year-old, and the result is a tragedy that no one in this community can really comprehend.’
Mabry was in the same room as his wife, Marie Ayala, 28, and two other children, a 5-year-old and a 6-month-old, when he was struck in the back by gunfire, police said.
Parents were previously convicted felons
Officers initially thought Mabry’s death was self-inflicted, but the man’s older child told them the 2-year-old was the one who accidentally shot their dad.
The toddler had been able to access a loaded semi-automatic Glock 19, which was left in a bag on the floor by his parents, according to an affidavit for an arrest warrant obtained by The Post.
Ayala was arrested Friday on charges of manslaughter by culpable negligence, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of ammunition by a convicted felon and violation of probation, Mina said.
Both parents had been on probation for child neglect and narcotics possession.
Ayala told a detective that she knew that as a convicted felon, she was not legally permitted to be in possession of a firearm.
The detective quoted the woman as previously telling Mabry of the Glock: ‘I was like, I told my husband, ‘Hey, we can’t have it, we going to have to get rid of it.”
Ayala made her initial court appearance Monday and was ordered jailed without bond.
During Monday’s press conference, Mina suggested that the tragedy was preventable.
‘Now these young children have effectively lost both of their parents, and a young child has to live his life knowing he shot his father,’ he said.
