PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – A man initially charged with second degree murder in the 2022 shooting death of a 2-year-old child in Portsmouth pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and reckless handling of a firearm.
According to the Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, Al Demond McNeil was at an apartment in the 2800 block of Deep Creek Blvd. the night of Aug. 10, 2022. Evidence was presented in court showing that McNeil was sitting in a chair in the kitchen while a child played on the floor near him. The child’s mother was getting food for her child when a gun fell out of McNeil’s waistband, hit the floor and fired a shot that struck the child.
As WAVY has previously reported
, 2-year-old Mayze Moon was shot in the head and died in the hospital three days later.
McNeil told responding officers the shooting was accidental, but the investigation led police to charge McNeil with the child’s death.
A Portsmouth General District Judge
denied McNeil bond,
but his defense attorney appealed that decision in Portsmouth Circuit Court, where Judge Brenda Spry granted McNeil a $20,000 bond. That was on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022. He was to be monitored by GPS and was given a curfew. Spry granted McNeil bail over objections by the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.
McNeil is scheduled to be sentenced at 9 a.m. Aug. 4.
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