Liquor and a gun: Reports detail teen’s shooting
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Twice within a week, a pistol owned by Gregory Wisniewski accidentally fired while teens played with it, according to statements contained in newly-released court documents.
The first time, no one was injured.
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But on the second occasion, a teen holding the gun the morning of Jan. 12 suffered a wound to his hand, and the round entered the neck of Jayden Henry Marvin Jackson.
The 14-year-old Jackson was pronounced dead at the scene inside Wisniewski’s home on Provincetown Avenue, in southwest Bakersfield.
Wisniewski, 33, is charged with five counts of child cruelty and one count of first-degree criminal storage of a firearm, all felonies. The latter charge relates to storing a firearm where a child could access it, and someone is injured or dies as a result. He’s due back in court next month.
The shooting
Without getting their parents’ permission, Wisniewski picked up the teens — he referred to one as “my little cousin” — between 11 p.m. and midnight on Jan. 11 and brought them to his house, according to the documents. He told police it was “normal” for him to do that.
He dropped them off, bought snacks at a 7-Eleven and returned home.
Several teens allege he gave them alcohol.
Soon after, as Wisniewski cooked food, he heard a “loud bang” and believed he was in danger, the documents say.
“Wisniewski stated he had just recently received a large settlement of money from an injury lawsuit and was fearful someone was attempting to rob him, so he ran out of the residence,” an investigator wrote in the reports.
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The teens rushed outside. Wisniewski noticed Jackson wasn’t among them, according to his statement in the reports. He said he went back in, found Jackson upstairs and tried to perform CPR.
The teen holding the gun when it fired, interviewed at Memorial Hospital for a gunshot wound to his left hand, said he believed it wasn’t loaded.
He told police he placed his left hand on Jackson’s head and, holding the gun in his right hand, pointed it at Jackson’s head. Jackson grabbed the barrel, the gun tilted downward and went off, the teen said.
There were conflicting statements as to how the teens got hold of the weapon.
Wisniewski told police he kept it in a locked room. At least one teen said Wisniewski gave them the gun. Others said they retrieved the weapon from the room.
“When asked where he keeps the key to his room, (Wisniewski) stated he did not know and told interviewers he was not ‘the sharpest,'” according to the documents.
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