Child shooting probe wrapped up

Boy wounded 5-year-old brother; DA gets report

Rio Rancho police have wrapped up an almost-four month investigation into a shooting involving two young brothers last spring and have turned over their report to the District Attorney’s Office for review.

No charges have been filed in the April 28 incident in which a 5-yearold boy was wounded, according to police.

The boy, police said, was shot in the left shoulder with a handgun fired by his 10-year-old brother.

The boys and their 9-year-old sister were home alone at the time.

According to the investigation report, the 10-year-old also showed off a firearm for school friends on the school bus earlier in the day. Rio Rancho Public Schools put out a notification to parents about that reported incident.

The siblings are the children of Curtis Adams and Kerry Adams, who have since divorced. Kerry Adams, now Kerry Baldwin, and the children were living at the home on 21st Avenue at the time of the shooting, according to the report.

Kerry Adams had been a nonpaid columnist for the Observer and blogged about religion and politics.

According to the investigation, Rio Rancho police investigator Kevin Dupre responded to reports on April 28 that a 5-year-old child had been shot. Dupre found splatters of blood on the home’s walls, a bedroom door frame and down a hallway that led outside onto the home’s driveway.

Inside the older boy’s bedroom was the smell of “fresh-fired gunpowder” and evidence a bullet passed through the bedroom door, through a bathroom door next to the bedroom and struck the bathroom wall. A .40-caliber casing was found at the foot of the child’s bed, adorned with Spider-Man

bed sheets.

In the parent’s master bedroom’s closet was an unsecured BB gun, a .22-caliber rifle and ammunition. A .40-caliber Glock 23, with loaded magazines, was found inside a handgun case placed on a nearby chair.

Investigators’ interviews with Curtis Adams, the victim and his brother revealed the 5-year-old was shot through the older boy’s bedroom door.

The three children were home from school and their mother had gone grocery shopping at the time of the shooting.

The older boy, according to the investigation, confessed to his father that he had the handgun in his bedroom, was joking with his younger brother and “wanted to scare his brother.”

The younger brother was outside the bedroom, and the older brother “pointed the handgun at the door and it went off.”

The boys’ sister — who was in her bedroom at the time — alerted neighbors of the shooting, who then contacted police and emergency responders.

The victim was transported to and treated at the University of New Mexico Hospital, where he was later released the next day.

The older boy, according to police, had taken the weapon to school on the same day of the shooting and showed the weapon to friends on the school bus, according to police.

Curtis Adams, an Army veteran who completed five tours in Iraq, had taught his oldest son and daughter how to shoot a handgun — showing his children a safety video and teaching them about “basic firearms discipline” and how to disassemble and clean a handgun, according to police. He once took them to a gun range for their birthdays.

He gave the .40-caliber Glock to Kerry Adams as a Mother’s Day present, police said. He told police he never taught his oldest son how to shoot the Glock.

The parents have since been given dual custody of their three children.

Kerry Adams chose not to be interviewed or provide a statement to police regarding the incident, Rio Rancho Police Department Lt. Nicholas Onken told the Observer. She did not respond to the Observer’s call or email for comment.