A man accused of recklessly firing a gun that left a Pembroke Park boy injured arranged for his friends to hide the gun so that he wouldn’t get in trouble, the Broward Sheriff’s Office says.
But the shooting suspect, Kamoy L. Sharpe, 27, of Miami, and his three alleged helpers still were taken into custody after sheriff’s investigators figured out Sharpe’s plan to hide the gun, the agency said.
Sharpe was arrested Wednesday on charges of child neglect causing great bodily harm, tampering with evidence and violating probation in a past gun case. Thursday, Broward County Judge John “Jay” Hurley ordered him held without bond.
The 5-year-old boy was listed in fair condition at Joe DiMaggio’s Children Hospital in Hollywood on Thursday, that same day a judge allowed the boy's mother, Shamor Dunkley, to visit her son at the hospital.
The boy was struck with an unknown projectile at his home in the 5100 block of Southwest 41st Street Wednesday, when the bullet traveled through a wall into a bedroom where he was sleeping, according to sheriff’s spokeswoman Dani Moschella.
When the shooting happened, Sharpe was “willfully and negligently” holding a loading firearm at the home, the sheriff’s report said.
People in Custody After 5-Year-Old Boy Injured in Shooting: Broward Sheriff's Office
“He pulled the trigger in a reckless manner, causing the firearm to fire,” the report said.
Sharpe asked friends to remove the firearm to impede the investigation, the Sheriff’s Office said. Even though the gun had been taken away, investigators still recovered it, the agency said.
Sharpe’s alleged helpers, Samaro Spencer, 22, Shanek Heron, 20, and Kenata Williams, 24, were taken into custody on charges of tampering with evidence, the agency said.
During Thursday's shelter hearing, Heron and Williams were identified as having a 2-month-old baby who also was inside the apartment when the shooting happened. That baby has since been taken from the home and now is with grandparents, pending a home study.
At Spencer’s court appearance Thursday, an assistant public defender described Spencer as Sharpe’s godbrother.
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At the time of the shooting, Sharpe was on probation stemming from a May 2012 case involving charges of carrying a concealed firearm and possession of cannabis, the report said.
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Sharpe obtained probation as a result of a plea agreement, mainly because he had a clean record, said Laurence J. Edson, Sharpe’s attorney in last year’s case. Thursday, Edson said he hadn’t been retained to represent Sharpe in the new case.
He recalled Sharpe as a “sharp, clean-cut young guy.”
In court Thursday, Assistant State Attorney Eric Linder told Hurley that he thought Sharpe posed an “extreme risk” to the community, citing Sharpe’s prior gun history.
Linder said he found it “even more concerning” that Sharpe had been put on probation and was “illegally in possession of a gun again,” resulting in the child’s injuries.
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