Report: Toddler in Pompano Beach shooting found gun

The man arrested in the shooting death of a toddler in Pompano Beach told deputies the child found a gun he hid the night before under a couch cushion and fired it, a probable cause affidavit said.

Lius Appolon, 33, of Pompano Beach, called 911 shortly before 2 p.m. on Saturday and said he was on the couch and got up to use the bathroom and heard a gunshot. He found the injured child when he came back into the living room.

Appolon told deputies who responded to the apartment that the victim was his child, the affidavit said.

Several other children and adults were at the Pompano Beach apartment near the 500 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard when deputies arrived. What Appolon told the deputies was different from what he told the 911 dispatcher, the affidavit said.

He told deputies he was lying on the couch with the child when he heard the gunshot, the affidavit said. Appolon said he hid a 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun under a couch cushion the night before.

The other children and adults were in different rooms when the gun went off, he told deputies. After the toddler was shot, Appolon pulled the gun out from the cushion and removed the magazine, the affidavit said.

He told deputies he believed the 2-yearold got under the couch and “somehow got the firearm to discharge,” the affidavit said. It was typical for him to hide the gun under the cushion or in a kitchen cabinet while he was at the apartment, where his girlfriend and his daughter live.

The toddler was taken to Broward Health Medical Center and pronounced dead shortly before 3 p.m., the affidavit said.

Broward Sheriff ’s Office Crime Scene and Homicide detectives investigated the circumstances of the shooting and representatives with the Child Protective Investigation Section were contacted, the Sheriff ’s Office said.

The Sheriff ’s Office has not released additional details.

Appolon faces one count of manslaughter with a firearm and has since been released on bond. He is required to be monitored with a GPS tracking device and is not allowed to leave Palm Beach, Broward or Miami-Dade counties, court records say.

Attorney information was not available, and Appolon did not immediately return a voicemail Wednesday evening.