Nonverbal 5-Year-Old Fatally Shoots Himself With Henrico Man’s Gun During Mom’s Lash Appointment; Man Charged With Improper Storage

By Luke McCoy •

Key Takeaways

  • A nonverbal 5-year-old boy fatally shot himself with Steven Blakeney's gun inside an eastern Henrico apartment on October 24.
  • The boy's mother had brought him along while getting her lashes done at a friend's apartment where Blakeney left his gun on a couch.
  • Henrico Police charged Blakeney with improper storage of firearms and allowing access to firearms by children, both misdemeanors under Virginia law.
  • A judge granted Blakeney a $10,000 bond on November 5, with conditions including no firearms, home electronic monitoring, and no contact with anyone under 18.
  • The boy's mother said she wants her son's story to make other gun owners think about how they store their guns.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

HENRICO, VA — A man faces two misdemeanor charges after a nonverbal 5-year-old boy accidentally shot himself with the man’s gun inside an apartment in eastern Henrico on Saturday, Oct. 24. The boy did not survive. Henrico Police charged Steven Blakeney with improper storage of firearms and allowing access to firearms by children.

The boy’s mother had taken him along on errands that day, as reported by WTVR. They stopped at Roses, where he grabbed a pack of M&M’s, his favorite. Then they went to a friend’s apartment, where the friend was going to do the mother’s lashes. She said Blakeney, the friend’s boyfriend, let them inside and saw that her son was with her.

She was getting ready to pay. She was digging through her pocketbook. She asked whether her friend took Apple Pay.

“Next thing I heard was ‘boom,’ and my son was on the floor in a puddle of blood,” she said.

According to Henrico Police, the boy accidentally shot himself with Blakeney’s gun. His mother said he was nonverbal and that no one understood him but her. He was a student at Highland Springs Elementary School.

The mother says the gun was left out on a couch. Her question for Blakeney is the one every gun owner should already have answered before a guest walks through the door.

“You saw my son with me,” she said. “Why the (expletive) you didn’t grab the gun? Like, put your gun up. Like, why you leave your gun in the open on a couch?”

Both charges Blakeney faces are misdemeanors under Virginia law. Anyone who carries here should know Virginia’s concealed carry laws. A carry mindset also has to cover the moment the gun comes off your body. When a child is in the room, it goes in a safe, a lockbox, or back on your hip, not on the furniture.

On Thursday, Nov. 5, a judge granted Blakeney a $10,000 bond, according to WTVR. His conditions include no firearms, home electronic monitoring, and no contact with anyone under 18. CBS 6 legal analyst Todd Stone told the station that bond is not unusual on misdemeanor charges, because bond exists to make sure a defendant returns to court, not to punish him. Blakeney has been charged, not convicted, and the case will be decided in court.

For the mother, the bond means Blakeney can spend the holidays with his family while her son cannot.

“My son is no longer here,” she said. “My son ain’t here. Not here for the holidays.”

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She says she wants her son’s story to make other gun owners think about how they store their guns.

“I want my son back. I can’t get my son back,” she said. “I miss my son every day.”

Read the original story: Nonverbal 5-Year-Old Fatally Shoots Himself With Henrico Man’s Gun During Mom’s Lash Appointment; Man Charged With Improper Storage

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firearm firearms concealed carry nonverbal 5-year-old fatally shoots