Parents of Child, 5, Involved in Girl’s Shooting Are Arrested

The parents of a girl who accidentally shot a 2-year-old playmate in a Chula Vista back yard on Thanksgiving were arrested Friday on suspicion of child endangerment.

The father, Thomas Molina, 58, of the 400 block of Anita Street, was taken to County Jail downtown, where he was being held on $15,000 bail pending an arraignment Tuesday, a jail clerk said. Molina was also accused of attempting to alter the serial number on a .38-caliber handgun that was used in the shooting.

The mother, Erma Molina, 31, is being held at the Las Colinas jail for women, where she was booked on suspicion of felony child abuse. Her bail was set at $10,000 pending her arraignment Monday.

The parents were arrested one day after their 5-year-old daughter ran into the family home about 4 p.m. and came out to her back yard swing set with the loaded pistol to show her friend, Mary Ann Burns, 2, of the 400 block of Tremont Street.

The pistol discharged, wounding Mary Ann in the back of the head, said Chula Vista police spokeswoman Diane Quevedo.

The toddler was rushed to Scripps Memorial Hospital by her mother, Bertha Burns, before physicians ordered her transported by Life Flight to Children’s Hospital, police said.

Children’s Hospital spokesman Jim Boylan said Friday that Mary Ann was in critical condition following surgery late Thursday to remove four bullet fragments that were lodged in the back of her brain.

“It’s difficult to say if she will survive because when someone is in critical condition they can go sour on you pretty fast,” he said. If the child survives, she may suffer severe brain damage, he added.

Police decided on Friday to arrest the Molinas after an investigation showed strong suspicion that the couple were neglecting their five children, who range in age from 2 to 12, said Chula Vista Police Lt. Dean Girdner.

“The condition of the house was really bad,” Girdner said. “It wasn’t just the fact that the child was shot, it was the shape of the house and the children during the interview.”

He said the children were taken to Hillcrest Receiving Home and will probably be placed in foster homes.

A neighbor, June Seaman, described the Molina yard, where the accident occurred, as a “children’s junkyard.”

“That back yard was an accident waiting to happen,” Seaman said.

She said she can’t blame the Molina child for playing with the gun.

“Kids are going to be kids,” she said. “It’s the parents that never really wondered what their kids were doing. Those kids did anything they ever wanted to in that yard. There was even a fire, and I’ve never once seen one of the parents come out of the house.”

The father of the wounded toddler lives in Riverside County but has been at Children’s Hospital with Mary Ann’s mother, from whom he is separated, since the accident, Boylan said .

Mary Ann’s parents declined to speak to reporters, but Seaman described their daughter as being “bright and energetic.”