An 11-year-old girl is recovering after she was shot in the arm and chest Wednesday night on East Lovejoy Street in Buffalo, and police have charged a 37-year-old man in connection with what investigators are calling an accidental shooting. The girl arrived at Erie County Medical Center just after 10 p.m., and detectives have since filed multiple felony charges tied to the gun that wounded her.
According to WGRZ, Ernesto Ramos-Lopez, 37, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the second and third degrees, endangering the welfare of a child, failure to safely store a firearm in the first degree, criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, and criminal tampering in the third degree. Buffalo Police Gun Violence Unit detectives responded to the scene and say they recovered a loaded, defaced Luger 9x19mm Parabellum handgun along with suspected crack cocaine.
Police say unsafe firearm storage led to the accidental shooting, and that the suspect did not store the weapon safely. The station reported that WIVB News 4 separately confirmed the girl's hospital destination and the timeline of her injuries, placing her arrival at Erie County Medical Center the same Wednesday night.
What the Charges Carry Under New York Law
The top charge, criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, is a Class C violent felony under New York Penal Law § 265.03, carrying a potential prison term of up to 15 years, according to The New York State Senate. That statute is typically applied when a loaded firearm is possessed outside a home or business or with unlawful intent, underscoring how seriously the case is being treated.
The defaced handgun recovered at the scene also triggered a separate Class D felony count. Per the New York State Senate, knowingly possessing a firearm that has been altered to conceal its identity or prevent detection constitutes criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree under Penal Law § 265.02(3).
The safe-storage charge stems from New York Penal Law § 265.45, which mandates that gun owners secure firearms away from minors and other prohibited individuals. The New York State Senate notes that failing to do so in the presence of children can be prosecuted as either a misdemeanor or felony safe-storage offense, depending on the risk and harm involved. A lesser misdemeanor count, criminal tampering in the third degree, is defined under Penal Law § 145.14 as tampering with another person's property without right and with intent to cause substantial inconvenience, punishable by up to 90 days in jail.
Buffalo's Gun Violence Numbers Show a Mixed Picture
The shooting comes even as Buffalo officials have pointed to a broader decline in gun violence citywide. In August, Mayor Sean Ryan and Police Commissioner Erika Shields reported that shooting incidents had dropped 46% compared to the city's 10-year average, though police had still seized 437 illegal firearms and made 282 gun arrests year-to-date, according to the City of Buffalo.
Separate state and county data tracked under the Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative shows non-fatal shooting incidents involving injury in Buffalo fell by more than 50% between early 2021 and early 2026, per figures from Erie County and the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. Even as those overall numbers trend downward, illegal handguns and unsafe storage remain persistent problems for local law enforcement.
Why Safe Storage Remains a Public Health Concern
National research helps explain how accidental shootings like Wednesday's tend to happen. A 2023 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that roughly half of accidental shooting deaths among children occur inside their own homes, most often involving unlocked and loaded handguns left accessible in sleeping areas or on nightstands.
The stakes extend beyond any single case. Firearm-related fatalities among children and adolescents in New York rose 46% between 2019 and 2023, according to statewide health data analyzed by America's Health Rankings, establishing guns as a leading cause of pediatric mortality in the state. Research from Everytown for Gun Safety has identified secure storage — keeping firearms unloaded, locked, and separated from ammunition — as the single most effective way to prevent these accidental youth shootings.
As of now, it remains unclear how the defaced Luger was obtained, whether anyone else was present in the home at the time of the shooting, and what the girl's current medical condition is as the case moves through court. Buffalo Police Gun Violence Unit detectives continue to investigate the scene on East Lovejoy Street.
