Police say an AR-style rifle belonging to 18-year-old Gabriel Osorio was handled by several minors before a fatal shot was fired.
OAK HILL, W.Va. — An 18-year-old man has been charged with child neglect resulting in death after a juvenile was fatally shot with an AR-style rifle inside an Oak Hill home, according to police and a criminal complaint filed in Fayette County.
Gabriel Osorio was arrested after the Nov. 3 shooting at a home on Third Street. Police said officers responding to a report of a gunshot injury found the wounded juvenile near the entrance of the residence and began providing aid. The child was taken first to Plateau Medical Center and later flown to Charleston Area Medical Center, where the juvenile died. Authorities have not publicly identified the child.
Investigators found an AR-style rifle on a bed inside the home, according to the criminal complaint. Osorio told detectives that he had invited three juveniles to the residence and that the group had gathered in his bedroom to listen to music and spend time together. His account, as described in the complaint, forms a central part of the case against him and has not been tested at trial.
Osorio told investigators that one of the juveniles found the rifle under his bed. He said he had bought the firearm only a few days earlier and that the minors began posing for photographs with it. According to his statement to police, the rifle initially did not have a magazine inserted.
The rifle’s magazine was stored in a locked box and contained about six rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition, according to the complaint. Osorio told police the key to that box had been left on his dresser and that one of the juveniles apparently found it, opened the box and removed the magazine. Osorio said he later took the rifle away from a juvenile and told the child not to handle it.
According to Osorio’s account, the rifle was picked up again later while he was in the kitchen eating. A shot was fired, and Osorio returned to the bedroom to find one juvenile wounded. He told investigators that another juvenile threw the rifle onto the bed and tried to leave. Osorio said he stopped that child from leaving before returning to help the injured juvenile and call for emergency assistance.
Police have not announced charges against any of the juveniles who were at the home. The criminal complaint identifies Osorio as the person charged with child neglect resulting in death, a felony. A Fayette County magistrate found probable cause for the charge, according to local reports.
Osorio was being held at Southern Regional Jail after his arrest. The available court and police information does not establish that he fired the fatal shot, and the charge against him remains an allegation. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
The Oak Hill Police Department said the shooting remains under investigation. Authorities have not publicly released the victim’s identity or announced additional charges, and no further court schedule was available in the reports reviewed Friday.