Boy accidentally shoots himself with gun inside car in Miami, cops say. His uncle arrested
A Hialeah man is behind bars after his nephew accidentally shot himself with the man’s gun while sitting in his vehicle unattended, police said.
Police said 33-year-old Derrick John Spence, Jr. drove his 10-year-old nephew — whom he has temporary custody over — to a pizza restaurant on East 8th Avenue Saturday and went inside to pick up his order.
The nephew waited inside Spence’s Nissan Altima, opened the glove compartment and found a Ruger pistol, according to the arrest report. He accidentally fired the weapon, wounding his hand, police said.
Spence drove to the boy’s grandparents’ house on Northwest 57th Avenue in Miami, where the child told his grandmother that he slammed his hand in the car door, according to the report.
However, the grandfather inspected the boy’s hand and noticed a hole and damage that was not consistent with it being slammed in a car door, police said.
He told his wife to take the boy to the hospital, where he was treated for the wound, the report states. Police have not said how badly the boy’s hand was injured.
While the grandmother and child were at the hospital, Spence stayed with the grandfather. The grandfather told police that he saw Spence cleaning blood from inside the car, and he saw a bullet hole in the driver’s side door.
On Sunday, Spence told police the boy told him he hurt his hand in the car door. Spence said he told the boy to tell his grandmother about the injury.
The rest of what he told police was redacted from the arrest report.
As of Monday, Spence was being held on a $5,000 bond at Turner Guilford Correctional Center on a felony charge of culpable negligence with a firearm that was accessible to a child.
