ORLANDO, Fla. — Zetta Williams remembers sitting beside her granddaughter at the hospital after it was already too late to save her.
“They told me she was gone,” Williams said.
Her granddaughter, Emony Green, had been shot. Later, Williams said, a detective came to her home and described what happened.
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“This man looked me in my face and told me it was an accident.”
Emony was a young teenager, but it helped spark a months-long investigation by Channel 9 and our television stations across the country into what happens when children get their hands on loaded guns.
Over the last decade, dating back to 2016, the investigation documented more than 2,000 accidental shootings involving children ages 12 and younger nationwide, including more than 150 in Florida and 37 in Central Florida. In this reporting, we are focused on this age group because it’s more likely to be an accident.
Behind those numbers are children killed or injured, families grieving and difficult questions about how the guns became accessible and who should be held responsible.
Building a national picture
The investigation builds on Channel 9’s examination of gun violence in Central Florida, which began in 2019.
Since the summer, reporters have examined news articles, police reports and court records to build a national database of accidental shootings.
The research includes cases in which law enforcement determined a child unintentionally shot themselves or someone else. Some victims survived. Others never came home.
The investigation builds on Channel 9’s examination of gun violence in Central Florida, which began in 2019. This reporting focuses on young children and their access to firearms left unlocked and loaded.
The consequences can be heard in frantic calls to 911.
“Please hurry up, this baby bleeding bad,” one caller pleaded after a shooting in Seminole County. “We need medical, please. It’s a little baby.”
That child survived.
In another call reviewed by 9 Investigates, a caller described a loud noise, a woman bleeding and a baby crying. The woman had been fatally shot by her toddler.
For Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith, even one case represents a preventable tragedy.
“Think about what happens to the family,” Smith said. “And the big thing is they’re all preventable.”
He pointed to the precautions adults can take to prevent children from accessing firearms.
“They’re not using gun locks. They’re not using gun safes,” Smith said.
What Florida’s storage law requires
Florida has a firearm-storage law, but its requirements depend on the circumstances.
The law applies when someone stores or leaves a loaded firearm on premises under their control and knows, or reasonably should know, that a child younger than 16 is likely to gain access without the required permission or supervision.
It allows several ways to secure the weapon: a locked box or container, a location a reasonable person would consider secure, or a trigger lock.
The law also includes an exception when someone carries the gun on their body or keeps it close enough to retrieve and use as quickly as if it were being carried.
Those conditions matter when investigators and prosecutors determine whether an adult broke the law after a child gained access to a gun.
Prosecuting a grieving parent
State Attorney William Gladson, whose circuit includes Lake County, said prosecutors have options ranging from lower-level charges to aggravated manslaughter, depending on the evidence and circumstances.
“I think there’s a range that’s sufficient to hold people accountable,” Gladson said.
But deciding which charges can be proved requires examining precisely what happened.
“The law is usually clear. What’s not clear are the facts that happened surrounding it,” he said.
Prosecutors must also consider how jurors will evaluate a case involving a parent who has already lost a child.
“You also have to factor in, if you’re going to have a jury trial, empathy that a regular jury is going to have when they see a grieving parent that’s being prosecuted and their only child is dead,” Gladson said.
During interviews, 9 Investigates also asked about a recurring explanation in some cases: adults saying they had taught their children firearm safety.
Gladson questioned what that means when a child can still reach a loaded weapon.
“To me, guns safety means keeping your ammunition locked up separately than the firearms and nobody but the adults in the family knowing the access code to get into that safe,” he said.
When a child pulls the trigger
Decisions about charging a child bring another set of questions.
State Attorney Monique Worrell, whose circuit covers Orange and Osceola counties, said prosecutors must examine the child’s background, how the firearm was obtained and the child’s ability to understand and participate in court proceedings.
“How did they get the gun? Where did it come from?” Worrell said. “What is their understanding and ability to be found competent within the court system?”
In Emony Green’s case, an adult was in the home when she was killed. The child who admitted pulling the trigger was sentenced in the juvenile system.
The juvenile records are not public, leaving unanswered questions about how the child obtained the gun.
Worrell also expressed concern that changes in firearm laws and training requirements could contribute to more unintentional shootings.
“We have more guns, less training, less education,” she said. “There’re going to be more accidents.”
Different rules across state lines
The national investigation also examined differences in firearm-storage requirements.
In Massachusetts, state law generally requires stored firearms to be secured in a locked container or fitted with an engaged safety device that prevents unauthorized use. The statute excludes firearms carried by or under the control of an owner or another authorized user.
The comparison highlights a central question in the investigation: What responsibility should adults have to secure a firearm before a child can reach it?
For Williams, that question is inseparable from the granddaughter she lost.
“I wish it was something I could say or do to help avoid it,” she said. “I would say look at what happened to my baby.”
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