Man arrested after toddler dies of self-inflicted gunshot wound

A 35-year-old man is under arrest and facing a felony charge after a toddler accidentally shot himself in a Fresno home over the weekend.

Oscar Ramos was booked on a felony charge of criminal storage of a firearm, as well as a charge of possession of a large-capacity magazine, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said at a news conference Monday.

“This was a death that was completely avoidable,” Dyer said. “We have a 2-year-old boy in our city today who is dead, a father who is grieving and will never be the same, as a result of the negligent act of one individual.”

Police said officers received a call shortly after 12 p.m. on Saturday, from a woman who said a 2-year-old boy had shot himself in the head. When officers arrived at the residence in the 300 block of West Audubon Drive, they found the boy, identified as Jace Alexander, on the bedroom floor in a pool of blood.

The boy was breathing and officers attempted to stop the bleeding, Dyer said. Paramedics then transported the boy to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead later that afternoon.

At the time of the shooting, the boy’s father was at work and had left his son in the care of his fiance, Dyer said. The fiance and Ramos, who is the couple’s roommate, told police they were in another room when they heard a loud pop from the other side of the house, he said.

They said they found Jace on his bedroom floor and Ramos’ Sig Sauer semiautomatic handgun on the bed. Ramos paced around the house for five to 10 minutes without calling police, before the father’s fiance took Ramos’ phone and called 911, Dyer said. Based on the gunshot wound, he said, the additional time probably would not have been enough to save the boy.