A Northern Kentucky father kept a handgun to protect himself and his family. He sometimes kept the loaded gun in an unlocked dresser drawer in the same room where his children slept at their Covington apartment.
On a January afternoon in 2024, Tashaun Adams’ 3-year-old son got into the drawer, took out the gun and shot his 2-year-old brother.
Khalil Adams died at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center from a gunshot wound to the chest. His older brother told police at the scene, “Daddy’s gun is in the drawer,” according to a criminal complaint.
Tashaun Adams, now 23, and the boys’ mother, 25-year-old Selena Farrell, were convicted on April 17 of charges related to Khalil’s death at the end of a four-day trial in Kenton County Circuit Court.
They were both found guilty of reckless homicide. Farrell was separately convicted of abandoning a minor. Prosecutors sought convictions for murder. It’s a rare instance of parents being held criminally responsible for their child fatally shooting another.
“This case is about the parents’ choices,” Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders said in court. “They made lots of mistakes, but they weren’t accidents.”
Farrell bought the handgun from a pawn shop in late 2021, two weeks after Khalil was born, court filings state. She later gave the gun to Adams.
NKY dad warned about leaving gun within kids’ reach
Because of his own difficult upbringing, Adams said in court that he sometimes felt it necessary to carry the gun.
However, Adams had been warned twice by authorities about leaving firearms within reach of his children, according to court records.
In July 2022, officers were called to Adams’ apartment in Erlanger after someone called 911, reporting that guns were lying out in reach of the kids. Police searched the home and found an unsecured gun in the bedroom. It was the same gun used in Khalil’s shooting death.
Officers were called later that year to investigate a report about Adams filed with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. They arrived with social workers at a home in Florence, where Adams and his sons were staying with a relative, and found a gun on the counter within reach of the older boy.
He was told again to put the gun away. Adams signed a prevention plan, agreeing to ensure the children had a “safe and stable environment” and were appropriately supervised.
“Everything that happened in this case was preventable,” Sanders said.
While there were warnings about Adams leaving the gun out, social workers repeatedly visited his home to assess it for safety concerns and didn’t come across the gun, Joseph Holbrook, Adams’ attorney, said in court.
He sometimes kept the gun inside the dresser underneath a laptop or in a kitchen cabinet.
“He didn’t think it was accessible,” Holbrook added. “He’s never been told that it’s not safe.”
Adams complied with such visits for more than a year without social workers finding anything dangerous. Then came the shooting.
‘I blame myself for it every day,’ father testifies
The couple and their children were living with Adams’ cousin and a friend in Covington. All of the adults were asleep until the afternoon. They awoke to the sound of a gunshot.
Adams jumped out of bed and saw Khalil lying on the floor.
“His eyes were closed,” Adams said. “It didn’t look like he was breathing.”
As officers approached the apartment building on Warren Street, they were met by Adams carrying the 2-year-old in his arms. First responders provided medical aid to Khalil in the street until paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital.
Farrell told police that the older child had a fascination with guns; however, Adams said the boy enjoyed playing with Nerf guns. He never saw the children attempt to get into the dresser and retrieve his firearm.
In hindsight, Adams acknowledged that he was wrong about the gun being safely stored away.
“I blame myself for it every day,” he said.
Farrell left by the time officers reached the scene. She told investigators that she knew the boy was going to die and wanted to attend his funeral. If she had stayed, Farrell likely would’ve been arrested on an outstanding warrant.
Attorneys for both parents characterized the shooting as an accident, saying they will live with Khalil’s death for the rest of their lives.
“Every crime is a tragedy, but not every tragedy is a crime,” Katelyn Sanders, Farrell’s attorney, said in court.
Parents failed to supervise boys for hours, prosecutor says
Because of the family’s living situation at the time, the gun was kept in the same room as where the children slept, said Rob Sanders, the prosecutor.
It was left loaded in an unlocked dresser, he said. The couple’s older child knew the weapon was there and could get to it.
“We know that he could because he did,” Sanders said.
He added that the toddlers were left unsupervised all morning and into the afternoon while the adults slept.
“This was hours of failure to supervise and care for those two little boys,” Sanders said.
The jury recommended that Adams serve five years in prison and that Farrell serve seven years. They’ll have to return to court for a final sentencing before Judge Kathy Lape.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: ‘Lots of mistakes’ led to fatal shooting of 2-year-old, prosecutor says
Reporting by Quinlan Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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