For the prosecutor, it was not an accident, but a crime: Two months after a toddler was fatally shot at his mother, Veondre Avery, the father of the two-year-old shooter, was arrested.

The prosecutors of the Seminole district in the American state of Florida accuse the twenty-two-year-old manslaughter and the inadequate safety of a weapon.

Avery is said to have kept the loaded gun, with which his partner was shot in mid-August, in a children's backpack on the floor of his bedroom. The case had shaken the United States not only because of Sagittarius' age. The circumstances of the accident also caused consternation. The toddler shot his mother Shamaya Lynn down with a head shot during a video call. As the twenty-one-year-olds interviewed at the Altamonte Springs police station, the boy appeared unexpectedly behind his mother. There was a loud noise before Lynn disappeared from the screen.

When officers walked into the house after calling one of their coworkers, they found Avery trying in vain to resuscitate the mother of his two children.

The twenty-two-year-old is said not to have been at home during the shooting.

“Every decision has consequences, and the decision to store a loaded gun like this was not a good one.

As the owner of a gun, you have a responsibility to take proper care of it, ”said police officer Roberto Ruiz when Avery was arrested on Wednesday.

Eight young Americans are injured or killed every day

The indictment against the twenty-two-year-old is fueling the debate in America about guns in children's hands. More than 4.5 million underage Americans live with unsecured pistols, revolvers, and rifles, according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Every day, according to the organization based in Washington, an average of eight mostly young Americans are injured or killed by so-called family fires.

To prevent accidental gunshots at home, around 30 states have passed laws preventing children from accessing guns in recent years.

Regulations in states such as California, Maryland and Minnesota make improper storage in locked cabinets a punishable offense.

In Florida, too, where Avery's two-year-old son shot his mother to death in August, gun owners have to face legal responsibility if they keep pistols, revolvers or rifles in such a way that children and young people can access them.

The twenty-two-year-old is expecting the first court hearing on November 23rd.

He faces up to 15 years in prison after being charged with manslaughter.

The two-year-old and his brother were placed with relatives.