A mother has confessed to accidentally shooting her son, Robert Florence, who was 16 years old. Tesha Jenkins is now facing charges of second-degree murder.
According to court documents, Jenkins described Robert as a “bad kid” who used drugs and skipped school. She said she shot him by accident after he pulled a gun from her backpack.
On October 9, police were called to Jenkins’ apartment and found Robert lying on the living room floor with a gunshot wound to the head. Jenkins was very upset and cried out, “I shot my baby,” when the police arrived. They noticed blood on her hands and clothes.
Jenkins explained that Robert was supposed to go to school that day, but he didn’t want to. After his two older brothers left, she called the school to inform them he wouldn’t be attending. While at home, Robert began bothering her and said he was going to get some marijuana from a neighbor. He asked to use her phone to call his older brother, and she allowed it.
After the call, Robert started messing around the apartment, pulling down curtains and throwing paper on the floor. Jenkins lay down on her bed and started texting a friend. She said Robert then took a Ruger 9mm handgun out of her backpack.
Jenkins lunged to grab the gun and asked Robert if he wanted to die. She said the gun went off accidentally, and she saw Robert fall. She thought the gun was empty because she believed she had removed all the bullets. However, she admitted that she might have put two bullets in it weeks earlier.
When police found the gun, it still had one bullet in the chamber and two in the magazine. Jenkins had owned the gun for about seven years.
Witnesses, including Robert’s father and his girlfriend, told police that Jenkins had pointed a gun at them in the past. Surveillance footage from that morning showed Robert’s brothers leaving for school and Jenkins coming out of the apartment upset shortly after the shooting.
Robert was taken to the hospital in critical condition but sadly died two days later. Jenkins is currently in jail with a bond set at $1.2 million.
