Father charged in accidental shooting of 1-year-old son

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - A Tallahassee man is now facing criminal charges in the death of his one-year-old son.

Jevin Randle, 20, is accused of negligence and improper storage of a firearm in his son’s death.

The accidental shooting happened at the Grove Park Apartments on Dick Wilson Boulevard on September 6th.

Court records say the toddler was shot in the abdomen as he and his one-year-old brother played in a back bedroom.

Randle told police he heard a “pop” while watching TV in another room and ran to discover the child had been shot.

Police recovered a Glock 19 handgun with a spent cartridge at the scene, arrest papers say, and found ammunition and another unsecured pistol under the bed.

Arrest papers say surveillance video from inside the apartment confirms the children were alone in the room at the time of the shooting, and also captured a “loud and obvious gunshot.”

The home surveillance video shows Randle was in another room watching TV, his brother was in the living room playing video games, and his mother was outside the apartment talking with a neighbor at the time.

According to arrest papers, the video shows Randle and his brother rushing into the room and Randle rushing out with the child in his arms. Court papers show paramedics met up with Randle and his mother as they were driving the child to the hospital.

Randle later told police his children “knew not to play with firearms” and told a DCF investigator that he was carrying the firearm because masked men with a gun and crowbar were walking through their apartment complex the night before. His mother did report that incident to police, arrest papers say, but officers were not able to locate the men when they arrived.

Randle is scheduled to make his first appearance before a judge Tuesday morning.

Randle’s son was one of three children killed in accidental shootings in our area in the span of just two weeks.

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