Inset: Brandon Sir Neveah McCloud (Orange County Jail). Background: Cops in Orlando, Fla., investigate after McCloud allegedly shot a 4-year-old boy (WKMG).
An 18-year-old Florida man was handling a gun while in bed when it went off and struck a 4-year-old boy in the chest, killing him, according to authorities.
Brandon Sir Neveah McCloud stands accused of manslaughter in the death of little Kayden Pearson in Orlando. Cops took McCloud into custody on Wednesday.
Orlando police responded around 11:30 a.m. July 17 to the Stella West Apartments for a child shot, a probable cause arrest affidavit said. When officers arrived they found a woman carrying an unresponsive child through the parking lot. Paramedics rushed the boy to the hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.
The shooting occurred inside an apartment where cops observed blood on the floor of the living room and bedroom and a spent shell casing in the trash. A family member responded to the scene and told cops that McCloud may have been involved in the shooting. Cops eventually found McCloud in a neighboring apartment and took him into custody.
He spoke with investigators and claimed that he and his girlfriend were returning from the store when they heard a gun go off and saw that Kayden was shot. But when cops tried to pin McCloud down on further details, he requested a lawyer and investigators ended the interview, the affidavit stated. He was released.
Detectives spent the next couple of weeks determining what exactly happened in the apartment.
They spoke with the woman seen carrying Kayden through the parking lot. She said she lives in the apartment next to where the shooting occurred. She said several people began frantically knocking on her door saying a boy who lived in the apartment had been shot. The neighbor said she went into the apartment and saw Kayden suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest. She was going to take the boy to the hospital and was running to her car when she saw cops, who took over lifesaving efforts.
The owner of the apartment where the shooting occurred said she was making a cake in her bedroom when Kayden walked into the room holding his stomach and collapsed. She said McCloud and his girlfriend were the only other people inside the apartment at the time of the shooting.
In an interview with the cops, the girlfriend said she and McCloud went to a store and returned to the apartment where Kayden followed them into a bedroom. She and McCloud were on the bed while Kayden was on a nearby couch. She was looking at her phone when she heard a gunshot and saw Kayden had been shot.
While she admitted she saw McCloud with a gun earlier in the day, she was "inconsistent" in her statements about whether her boyfriend was holding the gun in the bed, cops said.
With the involved parties vague on details, cops looked to McCloud's phone to tell the story. Investigators uncovered critical information.
They discovered a video taken about 75 minutes before the shooting that allegedly showed McCloud smoking marijuana and appearing to be impaired.
More significantly, in the minutes after the shooting McCloud conducted a Google search with the phrase "how to get gunpowder off you," the affidavit said.
"This brief interval represented a critical period during which life-saving aid could have been rendered to Kayden," cops wrote. "Instead, the search demonstrates that Brandon used his phone to seek information regarding the removal of gunpowder residue from his person during the immediate aftermath of the shooting. This showed Brandon's mentality was focused on escaping guilt rather than taking the opportunity to preserve life, adding to a consciousness of guilt."
Cops concluded that McCloud's "reckless handling of a loaded firearm directly and proximately caused" Kayden's death. McCloud was arrested Wednesday and remains in the Orange County Jail without bond. He's slated to appear before a judge on Monday.
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