C.J. Nelson Jr., the 21-year-old resident of 2 Ranwood Lane arrested the night of the fatal shooting of an 18-month-old girl at that house Sunday, was said by “more than one” witness in the house that he had been handling the gun that fired the fatal shot, and that he had described the gun as “jammed” before the shooting, according to his arrest report.
The child, Ja’Liyah Allen, was shot in the head 20 minutes before midnight Sunday, and died shortly afterward at AdventHealth Palm Coast. Authorities recovered one gun from the property, described as “a black AR‐15 style pistol with no brace on it” in a Flagler County Sheriff’s incident report.
Nelson was not arrested for the shooting. He was arrested on a probation violation: last April, he was found guilty and convicted, in a plea, on a charge of improper exhibition of a firearm, a misdemeanor, after an initial charge of carrying a concealed firearm. He was serving six months’ probation. One of the conditions of his probation was a prohibition on carrying or possessing any firearms without his probation officer’s permission.
Sheriff Rick Staly on Monday said Nelson had not been charged in connection with the girl’s shooting “yet,” and did not make an explicit connection between Nelson and the shooting.
911 Audio:
FlaglerLive has learned that whoever fired the gun had been cleaning it beforehand, that the gun had jammed, and that when it accidentally went off, the bullet went through a wall and struck the girl on the other side of the wall. The girl was breathing when paramedics arrived at the scene.
“More than one individual provided a sworn statement advising they saw CJ Nelson Junior… handling a firearm within the residence on September 3, 2023,” the probation violation arrest report states, and that he had “mentioned a firearm being ‘jammed.'” None of that means Nelson was responsible, as it remains unclear–with that many people in the house, all of whom could have had access to the gun–who fired the shot.
Nelson himself told an investigator and a detective that he did not have possession of a gun and was not sure where the gun came from, according to the report. “When asked if his DNA would be found on the firearm, CJ Nelson Junior advised that it may be as he recalls touching it a few months ago at a friend’s residence.”
Nelson was arrested at 11:34 the morning after the shooting. He is being held without bond at the Flagler County jail.
There were eight adults in the house at the time of the shooting. A recording of the 911 calls the night of the shooting, released today by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, is evidence of a harrowing scene as more than one voice is heard screaming hysterically, with no one actually engaging with the 911 operator until about 45 seconds into the call.
A man’s voice tells the operator, “a baby has been shot,” then leaves the line for another 30 seconds. “What’s the address?” the operator repeatedly asks. The man is clearly overcome. “She’s dead in my arms, she’s dead in my arms,” he says, as the operator asks for the address, then asks him what happened. “The gun, the gun accidentally went off and it shot the baby,” he says. More screaming is audible, causing the 911 operator to ask the man to walk away from it so he can answer her questions. He tells her again the boy is dead, and that she was shot in the head.
When the operator asks her who had the gun, he tells her: “My homeboy.” He calls his baby’s name several times, Ja’Liyah, Ja’Liyah.
On Facebook, Ja’mari Allen, the child’s father, wrote today: “I lost my daughter to stupidity.”
The original charge against Nelson dates from last Nov. 3, when he was a passenger in a car that had been pulled over for speeding on Whiteview Parkway. The smell of pot in the car led to a search. Nelson informed deputies that there were two guns in the car. He told the deputy that he had bought the gun from an unknown person in Daytona Beach. At the time, the state’s new law allowing Floridians not to have a concealed carry permit was still a few months away from approval at the Legislature. That law went into effect last July 1. The gun Nelson said was his was a Smith & Wesson.
Atwp says
He is arrested on earlier charges not murder. Why handle a gun with a house full of people? The baby is dead because of unwise decisions. What a shame. A baby dead because of adult stupidity.
Pogo says
@What do you call an assault rifle with the butt stock removed?
A pistol that fires rifle rounds. Oh, well, that’s different.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ar+15+style+head+wounds
Gun nuts call it…
https://www.google.com/search?q=a+black+AR+15+style+pistol+with+no+brace+on+it
MeToo says
@Pogo I call it illegal.
People amaze me! SMH
TR says
Everyone in the house needs to have charges of drug possession handed down on them. Also any of them with any prior felony charges also needs to be put in jail and locked up. But Nelson needs to be put in front of the surviving family members that weren’t in the house and let them shoot him. Yea, Yea I know an eye for an eye is not what this country does, but maybe it should.
Steve says
I agree with ALL you said except for the shooting him part. The ramifications and consequences of stupidity will be felt forever in many lives.
May that Baby RIP
The Geode says
That is a silly comment considering that the “surviving family members” were in the house when the baby was killed. What you people fail to realize is that to some people, a “baby” is a means to an end and a gateway to entitlements and tax-payer-fed life.
Not all babies are here because someone was willing to provide a good life for a child using love, caring, and appreciation …truth be told- very few of them are.
Skibum says
I was speaking with someone this afternoon who asked for prayers for her and her family because they lost an 18-month old who had been shot a couple of days ago. I was shocked because I had already been reading news articles about the baby who had been shot in the head by someone who was in the house in the R section of Palm Coast. This family member told me that the baby’s older brother had been “playing with a gun and it had accidentally gone off”, killing the child. In talking with her, it was obvious that the baby’s parents and others who were in the house at the time, knew exactly what had happened and knew that it was Nelson who had the gun at the time of the shooting. I cannot understand why parents of an innocent child who is now dead are still trying to protect the person who is responsible for the death of their baby. It is absolutely reprehensible behavior as far as I am concerned, and I hope that the family members who were there at the time of the shooting decide to cooperate with investigators, or if not, that the sheriff’s detectives get the evidence they need to prosecute Nelson for manslaughter. He needs to be in prison, not just for violating his probation, not just for having drugs that were found inside that home, but for the negligent possession of a firearm and the unlawful and untimely death of that baby.
Laurel says
The eight adults in that house who are not cooperating are failing that baby a second time.
Jumbo says
It was the mother’s brother, uncle to the child, not the child’s brother who was handling the gun. Also, father of the child was not there and lives at a different residence
Skibum says
Thanks for the clarification.
David Jacobs says
That house was a rental. They moved in June. People that rent houses should be doing their diligence to make sure crime hood rats don’t move into nice areas. This is a nice area & now it’s been marred by these hood rats.
KANEKIRU Kogitsune says
It sounds like it was a negligent discharge and the guy cleaning it or whatever he was doing didn’t practice any gun safety.
Thurston Howell III says
Agreed!!!!!!!! Low class people for sure!
bill says
The owners of the house should also be liable to contract with the property agent who is supposed to check the house at least once a month this is why they get 10% of the rent my own personal experiences. They don’t do crap they don’t check on the house the condition of the house or how many people are living in the house according to the contract that was signed. property managers are nothing but a joke. I know that I dealt with many of them over the years doing cold enforcement they don’t do their jobs but they take 10% of the cut every month.
Steve says
Distribution of 420 grams of Weed and 11 grams of White powder. Lock them All up
Steve says
He was nothing but trouble in my experience with him and his people he hung out with.
RIP
May Justice be served
Robert Joseph Fortier says
Not needing a permit to carry is a Really, Really BAD idea. I carry, but I am also a veteran who respects the power of a pistol. Not a toy, but we seem to think it is at times.
Our current new law pretty much lets anyone purchase a firearm…
Bad move.
Local says
Do u really think criminals are going to get a carry permit? NOPE!
WJ says
How does permit less carry let anyone purchase a firearm it has nothing to do with buying a gun! If u don’t have ur permit u still have to wait 3 days!
Reminder -Gun Safety- says
There is only a couple places a bullet can hide in a semi Automatic firearm, in the magazine, In the chamber or jammed somewhere in between, the gun is always to be pointed to the ground while ascertaining the magazine is disconnected and removed, there is no round in the chamber and nowhere in the loading mechanism, (AKA a “Jam”) Only then is the firearm safe to work on. Eddie Murphy here forgot Gun safety 101.
Land of no turn signals says says
Just another rental drug house.
Just saying says
I don’t know who taught people to clean loaded guns
bill says
maybe the owners of the house in Long Island New York should be contacted and I believe they were probably contacted about eight homeboys living in the house was that the agreement on the rental contract and if it wasn’t well, it should have been checked by a property manager and if it was not registered as a rental and there was no property manager then the homeowner should be written up