Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office investigators say the man was negligent in leaving the loaded gun within reach of the young child in the home south of West Palm Beach.

WEST PALM BEACH — Late Wednesday, a mother heard a bang.

She ran into the bedroom and found her 3-year-old son with a bloodied hand and standing next to a gun.

Her boyfriend, 21-year-old Juan Gomes Quintero, told Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office investigators he had been cleaning the .40-caliber Springfield in his bedroom at the home south of West Palm Beach and left it loaded in the top drawer of his nightstand.

The 3-year-old must have gotten the gun out of the drawer and fired a bullet through two of his fingers, investigators concluded.

They arrested Gomes Quintero, who appears to have a permanent address in Palm Beach Gardens, early Thursday on charges of culpable negligence, unsafe storage of a firearm and tampering with evidence.

On Thursday, a judge ordered that he remain jailed in lieu of $12,000 bail. He cannot have contact with the child or the child’s mother.

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The boy’s mother, who works in nursing, told investigators she carried her son to the bathroom where she cleaned and wrapped up his fingers. She then had a friend drive them to Palms West Hospital near Royal Palm Beach. The boy received treatment for his injuries and was released.

The mother called Gomes Quintero to tell him what had happened, he told investigators. He said he went to the house and grabbed the gun, along with a mirror that had a bullet hole in it. He said he tossed the mirror behind the home and left the gun along with his wallet and two cellphones in the car he had crashed earlier that day near Haverhill Park.

The arrest report does not elaborate on the crash.

Gomes Quintero said he bought the semi-automatic pistol about a month prior and typically stored it in the bedroom closet.

Calls to numbers listed in court and sheriff’s records as Gomes Quintero’s went unanswered Thursday.

ohitchcock@pbpost.com

@ohitchcock

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