ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The father of a 14-year-old boy who was fatally shot earlier this month while trying to sell a gun told Channel 9 on Tuesday that he never suspected his son would engage in such activity.
Deputies said they arrested Manuel Rosado, 16, Monday on charges of first-degree murder in the April 20 shooting of Antony Reid Jr. in Orange County's Oak Ridge neighborhood.
Investigators said the boys had arranged to meet so that Reid could sell Rosado a gun, but Rosado decided to not pay for the gun and instead shot Reid while robbing him.
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Antony Reid Sr., the victim's father, said he drives a tractor-trailer, so the Memorial Middle School student lives with his grandparents, who strictly monitored his comings and goings.
"I never heard anybody else say, 'Your son got guns. Your son (is) selling guns,'" he said. "If I knew, as a father, that he had that type of stuff, I would have ransacked that room, flipped that room upside down and found that type of stuff."
Reid said he returned home the day of his son's death to take him and his siblings to an Easter egg hunt, and they had a "wonderful" time.
He said his children were playing outside after they returned home from the event.
"When I rewound the (surveillance camera) tape, I looked at him standing right there in the driveway all before everything happened," Reid said. "(He) and his brothers (were) playing around. You see him run around the corner."
Watch the victim's grandmother describe him below:
Reid said his younger children then notified their grandfather of the shooting.
"My 6-year-old and my 3-year-old -- they ran home that day, told my dad, 'Fatman got shot,'" he said.
Reid said his son's behavior came as a shock to him.
"These days, your kids put all these lock codes on their phones, got about 100 different lock codes before you can get in the phone," he said. "He never gave me that impression to go search."
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