4-year-old shot in leg during Collier County Christmas house party; family member arrested

A 4-year-old boy was shot on Christmas night at a home in Collier County.

According to Collier County deputies, the child was shot in the leg and taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

A family was having a Christmas get-together when, deputies said, one person asked another to take a look at their gun.

While checking it out, the suspect, Diego Diaz, fired the gun, and a bullet went through a wall and hit a 4-year-old family member.

According to the report, when deputies arrived, the 4-year-old was bleeding from the right leg. There were other adults in the home and other kids present, but no one was saying how the victim got hurt.

The gun owner told deputies he had his firearm stored in a gun safe in his bedroom, and that’s where he got it from.

He also said the firearm did have a gun magazine, but it was not loaded, and that he had mentioned this to Diaz when he first showed the gun to him.

They all heard a loud pop and noticed the gun had been fired into the wall. Then, they heard the child crying in the living room.

The report also said most of the adults present when deputies arrived were drinking and groggy, including Diaz.

“We hear so many incidents like this happening,” said Walter Zelisko, a private investigator, “and this, there’s really no way to cure this, and because people are going to mishandle firearms, especially when alcohol is involved, and the only thing you can do is to have these people arrested and either jailed, be fined heavily — or jailed. I mean, they have to learn somehow.”

The sheriff’s office urges all Collier County gun owners to secure firearms.

They said it’s important to keep all weapons secure when not in use and to use a gun lock on your weapons or keep them stored in a secure vault or safe.

Correction: An earlier report stated that the victim’s father shot him.