Anthony Padilla, 19, was charged with murder after police say he accidentally shot his 13-year-old cousin to death. (Picture: MDC)

A coronavirus prepper accidentally killed his 13-year-old cousin with a shotgun he retrieved to ride out the pandemic, police say.

Anthony Padilla, 19, was charged with murder for the death of his 13-year-old cousin, Patricio Arroyo, Thursday in Albuquerque New Mexico.

Padilla told police that he was bringing the shotgun home for protection ‘due to the coronavirus that was going around,’ when he pulled the trigger and shot his cousin. He added that he did not think the gun was loaded.

Authorities responding to the scene found Padilla holding Arroyo in his lap in a van outside the home as Arroyo’s brother applied pressure to the wound, according to the criminal complaint obtained by the Albuquerque Journal.




Police say Arroyo was shot in the torso and had no pulse when the arrived. The boy was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Investigators interviewed family members who witnessed the incident and they told officers that Padilla walked out of a bedroom with a shotgun he had been storing.

Arroyo’s brother said Padilla ‘racked’ a round into the changer, aimed it at the teen and shot him. He said he believed Padilla was just ‘joking around’ before the gun went off. All of the family members who spoke with authorities said they thought the shooting was accidental.

Padilla told authorities he had been storing the gun in secret for a month at his aunt and uncle’s house because his mother did not allow guns in her house.

He said that he was taking the gun home in the wake of the coronavirus panic. He said he pulled the trigger once, but nothing happened, so he ‘racked’ the weapon and pulled the trigger about two feet away from Arroyo.

‘He put the gun down near the front door and began to tell Patricio to “stay awake” after he realized what he had done…He did not realize the shotgun was loaded,’ a detective wrote.

Padilla was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unclear when he is due in court.