June 9, 2008
Brandon Haught
Public Information Office

TEEN SHOT BY FRIEND PLAYING WITH GUN 

A 15-year-old boy was accidentally shot in the arm by a friend Sunday night in a home near Orange City when the friend was showing off his stepfather’s revolver. The victim was transported to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach by EVAC ambulance for treatment for his non-life threatening injury. The shooter, 15-year-old Anthony Escobar, was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Escobar was taken to the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Daytona Beach without incident.

 

The shooting was reported to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office at approximately 8:16 p.m. and deputies quickly responded to 1085 Hamilton Ave. They found Andrew Levesque with a gunshot wound to his upper left arm. The subsequent investigation revealed that Escobar had three friends visiting him at his house. He got his stepfather’s Taurus .45 revolver from his stepfather’s closet and took it back to his room where his friends were. He loaded the gun and then unloaded it, but left one round still in a chamber. He then spun the cylinder and pointed it toward his friends who were sitting on the bed. Escobar told deputies that he then intended to put the gun back in its holster when it went off and a bullet struck Levesque. However, Levesque told an investigator that after Escobar had spun the cylinder he pointed the gun at Levesque and pulled the trigger. Levesque, from Orange City, stated that the shooting was accidental, though.

 

Additionally, sheriff’s investigators plan on filing a criminal complaint affidavit with the State Attorney’s Office against the stepfather, Frederick Plummer, for having the gun improperly stored, which resulted in Escobar gaining access to the weapon.