On July 27, according to the statement of probable cause on view below, a Denver Police detective was contacted in regard to a report about a seventeen-month-old boy who'd been shot in the face and shoulder area. He then contacted Iesha Paris, 21-year-old mom to the toddler and another child, age two and a half.
The report shows three dates of birth, but Denver District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough says that's as a result of a typographical error.
Paris, who lives in the basement of her mother in law's home on Baltimore Court with the kids and Hunter, her 26-year-old husband, told the detective that the children were playing in their room when a gunshot sounded. She and Hunter raced there to discover that the youngest had a non-fatal bullet wound.
Who shot the boy? Paris didn't know, but Kimbrough says the presumption is that the child didn't shoot himself.
As for the gun, a black, 40 caliber Taurus, Paris said she purchased it a few weeks after her 21st birthday and had last used it two months previous at a firing range in Aurora. She said she usually kept it in behind the living room couch, inside a gun case and a bag, and insisted that after the last time she'd fired it, she took out the bullets.
None of that explains how the obviously loaded gun made it to the kids' room. Hence, Paris's subsequent arrest, followed by Hunter's, who just happened to have a record and wasn't supposed to possess a firearm. She's been charged with child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury and misdemeanor child abuse, while he's accused of accessory to child abuse and possession of a weapon by a previous offender. They're both free on $50,000 bond, but they'll be back in court on August 10 for a second advisement in a case that could have been more tragic but is certainly plenty bad enough.
Look below to see booking photos of Hunter and Paris, followed by the probable cause statement.
More from our News archive: "Ethan Hearty, Denver toddler, dies after finding gun in grandparents' Utah home."
