PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – A friend of a 15-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed by his stepmother in a Pembroke Pines home over the weekend said he became so frightened with how the woman was handling the gun that he left the house just moments before she fired the fatal shot.
Speaking to journalists in Spanish, Carlos Santos described the victim, 15-year-old Achilles Lopez as his best friend.
Santos said he was inside the home just moments before Lopez’s stepmother fired the gun. He said after the deadly shot, he ran back inside to find Lopez lying dead on the floor.
“What bothers me is my last memory of him is seeing him on the floor,” Santos said. “I will always remember him and keep him in my heart.”
Santos said he and Lopez were at the house preparing to go to dinner when Lopez’s stepmother began playing with a gun left sitting on a table.
“She kept playing,” he said. “Pointed the gun at me, at the dog, at Achilles.”
Santos said eventually, the woman removed the gun from the holster and removed what she believed were all the bullets and kept pointing it.
“I got scared and said ‘I’m going to wait in the car,’” he said. “Three seconds passed and I heard the shot.”
Teammates, coaches and relatives are now mourning the loss of the talented 15-year-old soccer player. They gathered Monday to meet with grief counselors as they tried to understand why someone with so much promise and so much life yet to live was taken so suddenly.
Police said Tuesday that they plan to recommend that prosecutors file manslaughter charges against the woman, who has not yet been publicly identified.
A GoFundMe page was launched to help the family with funeral expenses. It can be found by clicking here.