VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Always happy and always smiling: that’s how loved ones describe 3-year-old Kingsley Ferguson.
Kingsley died Saturday, Aug. 29 as his family was visiting a friend in the Chase Arbor Commons apartment complex. As the group was preparing to leave the complex for a birthday party at a nearby restaurant, the boy’s 28-year old mother and family friend Naquan Jones, 23, stepped outside on the balcony while children were left inside the apartment.
The mother tells 10 On Your Side that within two minutes she heard a single gunshot. The mother and Jones rushed back inside, where they found Kingsley with a gunshot wound to the left side of his head, just above the eyebrow.
The mother applied pressure to the wound as the child was driven to an urgent care center.
From the center, Kingsley was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Jones faces two charges: possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and allowing a child to have access to a loaded gun.
On Tuesday in a second bond hearing, the defense pointed out the mother has called for Jones’s release saying he takes responsibility for what happened.
But Kingsley’s father told the court Jones should remain behind bars.
“My 2-year old daughter was there too. It could have been two bodies,” said Jonathan Ferguson from the witness stand.
During a virtual hearing, Ferguson was critical of Jones.
“You don’t stand on it as a man for what you did,” said Ferguson.
After the emotional testimony, Judge Steven Frucci ordered that Jones, who as a teenager served time on felony convictions, remain behind bars on no bond.
The judge summarized the tragic case that’s now in the hands of the judicial system.
“I feel sorry for everybody in this case. No matter what happens, everybody is a loser,” said Frucci.
The next step in the case is a preliminary hearing; the date of that hearing is pending.
