Montgomery County minor charged in shooting death of 11-year-old Rockingham child

CANDOR — The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office has charged a 12-year-old child with first-degree homicide in the shooting death of an 11-year-old child from Rockingham in the early morning hours of Wednesday.

The initial call that came into the Montgomery County Emergency 911 Communications Center at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday reported that a youth had been “accidentally shot” in the Bell Acres Community of Candor. But, Montgomery County Sheriff Chris Watkins said that after further investigation including crime scene documentation, interviews and recovery of items of evidence, as well as evidence gathered from the autopsy of the victim’s body, the minor involved in the shooting was charged with murder late Thursday evening.

This child has been taken into custody and transferred to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety Juvenile Justice Division. Because both the suspect and victim are minors, neither of their names will be released by law enforcement. No other information about the incident has been released.

April Mendez, 38, of Jackson Springs, has been arrested and charged with one misdemeanor count of failure to secure a firearm in a home occupied by children. The firearm in question was a Winchester Model 1200 shotgun and allegedly caused a death that was not in self defense, according to the Montgomery County Clerk of Court.

Mendez has been given a $2,500 unsecured bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 8.

Investigators determined that the victim was visiting from Rockingham and staying with a friend, who used to live in Rockingham. The sheriff’s office learned that there were six minors left unsupervised in the residence, while the mother was at work. The other siblings of the home in question have been referred to Child Protective Services of the Department of Social Services out of concern for their “safety and wellbeing,” according to a sheriff’s office release.

“This is a tragic and sad event for all parties and is a profound reminder of the necessity to secure weapons in a home occupied by children as well as to properly supervise children,” Watkins said.