The parents of a 14-year-old Opelousas resident accused of killing Anaya Zachary at an apartment complex playground in Baytown, Texas, have been charged, according to KPRC.
Kenneth Coney, 61, and Cassie Coney, 37, have both been charged with a misdemeanor: making a firearm accessible to a child. Authorities claim the parents did not secure the gun in a way that would prevent their 14-year-old son from accessing and using it.
The incident occurred on March 21, around 4 p.m. Officers were dispatched to an apartment complex in the 4600 block of Village Lane after hearing reports of a shooting.
When officers arrived, they discovered Anaya near a playground with a gunshot wound. Officers immediately began life-saving measures until medics arrived and transported her to a nearby hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
Anaya’s family stated that she moved to Texas from Opelousas to live with her father when she was eleven years old. She was in her final year of middle school, and they are devastated that she will never get to experience everything life has to offer.
“A piece of our lives, our family, has been taken away. “There will never be enough justice served if we do not get her back,” her aunt, Nicole Ferguson, stated in an interview earlier this month.
The Baytown Police Department has yet to respond to The Advocate’s request for information on charges against the alleged shooter’s parents.
