INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Tasman Maile, the father was charged Thursday in Salt Lake County with child-abuse homicide.
When police arrived at the West Valley City, Utah, home of Tasman Maile in late May, they
found his 2-year-old son on the floor of his bedroom, unconscious and bleeding from the head.Next to the boy was Maile's Walther CCP
handgun.Maile told police that he had been sleeping at the time of the incident
The loaded handgun was within the reach of the toddler, who shot himself, said West Valley Police Department spokeswoman Roxeanne
Vainuku."The child was taken to the hospital in extremely critical condition," Vainuku told The Washington Post
"And it was apparent he was not going to survive his injuries
He was put on life support in effort to gather the family together so they could say their final goodbyes."The boy was taken off life
support after nearly three days and died soon after.Maile was charged Thursday in Salt Lake County with child-abuse homicide in connection
Maile has also been charged with possession of a controlled substance, obstruction of justice and three counts of possession of a firearm by
a restricted person, since he is a felon.Vainuku said Maile should never should have had access to a firearm in the first place
It not clear how he obtained the weapons.Vainuku said police recovered drugs and weapons from a dumpster near Maile's home
According to court records cited by the Salt Lake Tribune, witnesses saw Maile rush to the dumpster to throw away a bucket that police soon
found contained a handgun magazine, two jars of marijuana and a digital scale
In a backpack they found two other guns and a case for the Walther CCP handgun, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.Salt Lake County District
Attorney Sim Gill told the Tribune prosecutors believe Maile's negligence - leaving the gun in reach of the child - caused the boy's
death."This is a little bit different than somebody who takes their weapon and puts it in a case up in the closet somewhere, hidden behind
the clothes, and some child inadvertently finds it and shoots themselves," he said.The boy's grandmother, Tule Iloa, told KUTV that she was
in New Zealand visiting her mother when she got the phone call that her grandson, who she identified as Puniani Maile, was in critical
condition in the hospital.She rushed home just in time to make it to the hospital before the boy was taken off life support, she said
Maile was on the phone from jail to say goodbye."We know that he loved Puniani so much," she said.It was not immediately clear whether Maile
Maile has since been released on bond from the Salt Lake County Jail.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by
TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
