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Crime, Law and Justice
Dan Kraker
Duluth

Hinckley man charged with manslaughter in 3-year-old son's accidental shooting death

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A Hinckley, Minn., man has been charged with manslaughter in the accidental death of his three-year-old son, who shot himself with a handgun he found in his father’s bedroom.

Prosecutors have charged 26-year-old Roy Dean Pauza-Moore with two counts of 2nd-degree manslaughter, along with additional felony counts of child endangerment and negligent storage of firearms.

The child’s death is the second accidental shooting death of a minor in Minnesota in the past two weeks, following the killing of 12-year-old Markee Jones in St. Paul on Aug. 5. The Ramsey County Attorney's Office subsequently released the 14-year-old boy being held in connection with that shooting, after family members said it was an accident.

According to the charges in Pine County, Pauza-Moore was playing video games with his roommate last Tuesday night while his son watched a movie on his cell phone. When the phone’s battery began to run low, he told the boy to go upstairs to charge it.

A short time later he and his roommate heard a loud noise. They ran upstairs and found the child bleeding next to the bed, with a semi-automatic pistol lying on the floor next to him.

The defendant told investigators the handgun was loaded and sitting on top of an unlocked gun safe while the child was alone in the bedroom. He said the gun did not have any safety mechanisms.

The gun safe was tipped over when he entered the room. According to the criminal complaint, “Defendant said he believed the child knocked the safe over because the child has done that before. Defendant said he kept his handgun in an unenclosed and unsecured area in the gun safe.”

Law enforcement found two additional guns in the bedroom, including a loaded shotgun on the floor in an unlocked closet, with a bullet in the chamber.

The child’s mother told investigators she moved out of the home in late June when she and Pauza-Moore decided to separate. She said she recalled telling him to lock the guns out of the reach of the children.

According to the complaint, “She stated there was a gun safe in the house but Defendant never used it to store his guns while she was living in the house. She stated he kept the 9mm handgun loaded.”

Between 2001 and 2021, 82 Minnesotans died due to firearms accidents, according to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nine of those killed were children.