Kathy and Charles Roessler have been charged with making a firearm accessible to a child related to the shooting death of a teenage girl. The case has been filed under the state’s rarely used child access prevention law.
Deer Park police say that the Roesslers cooperated in the investigation. The incident happened in the 1500 block of Wilson in Deer Park, Texas on the evening of December 17.
The gun had been left loaded on the kitchen counter, and a shot was fired into the girl’s chest.
Texas is one of 27 states, plus Washington D.C., with a child access prevention law.
The law accounts for the failure to take the steps that “a reasonable person would take” to prevent a child’s access to a gun.
Source: Chron.com, “Houston-area parents, teen charged in 14-year-old girl’s shooting death,” by Fernando Alfonso III and Nick Powell, March 23, 2018