The case against Alhakim Nunez ended more than three years after his 4-year-old daughter, Kastari Isabella Nunez, was fatally shot inside the family's Northeast Philadelphia home. Kastari was wounded in the abdomen late on April 20, 2020, at the home on the 2900 block of Secane Drive and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Jefferson Torresdale Hospital. Nunez later pleaded guilty to offenses tied to the conditions surrounding her death, but no one was convicted of firing the shot.
Nunez pleaded guilty on Sept. 29, 2023, to endangering the welfare of a child and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, according to OurBlackGirls. He had initially faced involuntary manslaughter, child-endangerment and other charges along with Kastari's mother, Iris Rodriguez, but the manslaughter charges were not resolved through a conviction and were ultimately dropped for both parents. Judge Glenn Bronson sentenced Nunez to 1½ to five years in prison and ordered him to surrender in October 2023, with credit for about 16 months already served while the case was pending, according to KYW Newsradio.
Four adults were inside the home when the shooting happened, including another woman, Ashley Gushue, who was initially charged with unsworn falsification, evidence tampering and obstruction of justice before those charges were dropped. Kastari's 2-year-old brother was removed from the home by his uncle before the fatal shooting occurred, according to CBS News. Investigators recovered a .357 Smith & Wesson six-shot revolver from a living room sofa, loaded with five live rounds and one spent cartridge casing, that had been kept loaded and unsecured in the home for several months, as reported by WHYY.
A Father Barred From Owning the Gun He Kept in the House
Nunez owned the revolver and had drug convictions in three states, including Pennsylvania, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Prosecutors alleged that Nunez was upstairs conducting a drug transaction when Kastari was shot. Following his arrest, he was held on $1 million bail with a Nebbia hold requiring him to prove any bail funds were not derived from illegal drug sales, while Rodriguez was held on $500,000 bail, the Inquirer reported.
Investigators did not believe Kastari had shot herself, and prosecutors said the shooting was unintended. Testing and the accounts of the adults in the home did not produce a definitive determination of who fired the revolver. Nunez's guilty plea established his responsibility for illegally possessing the firearm and for endangering children, but it did not resolve the question of who pulled the trigger.
Adults Uncooperative as Investigation Began
The chief of the District Attorney's Homicide Unit said during an April 2020 briefing that adults inside the residence were initially uncooperative with police investigators, according to the same WHYY account. Gushue was later charged with obstruction and evidence tampering, though those charges were dropped. Prosecutors have said that an unsecured firearm in a home with children made Kastari's death preventable.
Under Pennsylvania statute, Endangering the Welfare of Children is graded as a first-degree misdemeanor when the specified felony conditions do not apply, with felony grading based on course of conduct and substantial risk, and a one-grade increase when the child is under six, per the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Philadelphia's own municipal code, Chapter 10-834, requires firearms kept in a home with anyone under 18 to be unloaded and stored in a locked container, subject to an immediate-control exception, and separately requires firearms licensed to be sold, owned or carried in the city to have trigger-locking devices, according to the Philadelphia City Council.
Where Philadelphia families can get gun locks
For families seeking safer storage, the Philadelphia Department of Human Services advises keeping guns locked, unloaded and out of sight, with ammunition stored separately, and points residents to Temple University Hospital's Safe Bet program for free cable gun locks. Penn Medicine says its Philadelphia gun-safety program has distributed more than 1,500 locking devices to community members while studying which devices encourage safer storage, according to Philadelphia's Department of Human Services and Penn Medicine.
Part of a Wider Pattern During Pandemic Lockdowns
Kastari's death occurred in April 2020; about a month later, a 9-year-old boy in Germantown was fatally shot, according to the Inquirer's later reporting. Nationally, firearms are the leading cause of death among children and adolescents. An estimated 4.6 million American children live in households with loaded, unsecured guns.
Kastari would have turned five less than two months after her death. The plea resolved some of the criminal case, while the available evidence did not establish who fired the gun.
