Three-year-old Amazi Aplon died Oct. 11 from an accidental gunshot wound inside an Oak Cliff apartment. His father has been jailed on a child-access charge, and a separate federal gun case carries up to 15 years if he is convicted.
Dallas police were called that day to the 4900 block of Wadsworth Drive for a reported shooting, WFAA reported, and found an unresponsive child who had been shot. Amazi was taken to a hospital and did not survive. Jerald Ray Joseph Aplon, 21, was charged in Dallas County with making a firearm accessible to a child, resulting in death.
A Loaded 9mm in an Unlocked Stool
A criminal complaint says Aplon told police he owned a Canik 9mm semi-automatic pistol and an AR-style rifle, and that he kept both firearms loaded and unsecured in the home. The 9mm had a round in the chamber. It was stored, the complaint says, in an unlocked stool beside his bed.
Detectives recovered the Canik from that stool. The pistol was jammed with a spent 9mm casing. Officers recovered an RF-15 multi-caliber rifle from a closet. Aplon had described his rifle as AR-style; the gun taken from the closet is identified as an RF-15.
The Dallas County medical examiner determined that Amazi was killed by a close-contact gunshot wound caused by the unsecured pistol.
Up to 15 Years, If Convicted
Aplon was arrested Nov. 9 for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in federal prison. He is being held in the Dallas County Jail.
Ryan Raybould said Aplon had no legal right to possess firearms because he was a convicted felon. Leaving a loaded firearm within reach of small children, he said, is unconscionable. The child's death, in his account, resulted from the defendant's recklessness, and authorities would bring the full weight of the law against anyone endangering children.
The Dallas County case is a different charge: making a firearm accessible to a child, resulting in death. In 2023, Aplon was charged with felony theft in Denton County.
Mary Korede, at the Oak Cliff apartment complex, said the child's death broke her heart and that it felt tragic.
A September Death in Fort Worth
On Sept. 5, a child died in Fort Worth after police said she apparently gained access to an unsecured firearm and accidentally shot herself, a report on that death said. That account, citing Everytown, said 17 children in Texas had died or been injured in 2026 after gaining access to a firearm and unintentionally shooting themselves or someone else. Three of those incidents were in Fort Worth.
A CDC report on unintentional firearm injury deaths among children and adolescents ages 0 to 17 drew on National Violent Death Reporting System records from 2003 through 2021, from 49 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The report associated unsecured firearms, including guns left unlocked and loaded, with the risk of unintentional childhood firearm injury death.
The Warning Dealers Must Post
Texas Safe Gun Storage, cited in the Fort Worth reporting, recommends using a storage device, locking ammunition separately from firearms, and keeping firearms in secure areas. A Texas Department of Public Safety sergeant advised children who encounter a firearm not to touch it, to leave the room, and to tell a trusted adult.
Texas law requires firearm dealers to display a warning in letters at least one inch high: IT IS UNLAWFUL TO STORE, TRANSPORT, OR ABANDON AN UNSECURED FIREARM IN A PLACE WHERE CHILDREN ARE LIKELY TO BE AND CAN OBTAIN ACCESS TO THE FIREARM. The complaint on Wadsworth Drive describes a 9mm with a round in the chamber, kept in an unlocked stool beside a bed.
