TOMS RIVER — The father of a 4-year-old boy who shot and killed a 6-year-old neighbor in a Toms River backyard last month was charged with several counts of child endangerment this evening, officials said.

The man, Anthony Senatore, 33, was arrested about 6:30 p.m. and charged with having "multiple unsecured weapons accessible to children," acting Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain said in a statement.

Senatore was charged with five counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of children and one count of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child. He was also charged with a disorderly persons offense for enabling access by minors to a loaded firearm, McClain said.

According to the charges, there were five unsecured weapons and ammunition accessible to Senatore’s three children, ages 4, 8, and 12, McClain said.

Tonight, Senatore was taken to the Ocean County jail, where he was held in lieu of $100,000 bail, officials said. He was later released on bail.

The shooting death of the 6-year-old boy — the youngest of three children and a first-grader at St. Joseph’s Grade School in Toms River — stunned friends and neighbors on the Toms River street lined with spacious and well-manicured homes and dotted with half-circle driveways and many cars.

Brandon Holt, 6, and his friend were playing "pretend shooting" in the Senatores’ yard on the evening of April 8, a neighbor said the day after the shooting.

McClain said that just before 7 p.m., the 4-year-old ran into his house, got into his parents’ bedroom and emerged moments later carrying a .22-caliber rifle.

Holt was shot once in the head and died the next evening at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune.

Brandon, who lived two doors away from the Senatores, was in a go-kart in the yard when he was shot, police said at the time.

Debi Coto, who lives in the neighborhood, said she did not hear the gunshot but saw the younger boy’s mother looking upset and waving down an ambulance.

Hours later, Cotto said, detectives took eight to 10 weapons from the Senatore home. In addition to the weapon used to fire the fatal shot, authorities allege Senatore also left unsecured a Stevens 12-gauge shotgun, two Harrington & Richardson shotguns and a Remington 12-gauge shotgun, all in close proximity to ammunition and accessible to his children, authorities said.

The five second-degree counts were connected to each unsecured weapon, McClain said.

The third-degree charge was related to the rifle used in the death of Brandon.

Under New Jersey law, residents do not need to register rifles but do need to have a gun purchaser’s identification card to buy them. Anyone who knows that a child younger than 16 could access a loaded firearm in the home can be charged with a disorderly persons offense if they fail to secure it or install a trigger lock.

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Neighbors said that the Senatore family rented their house, which they had moved into a little more than a half-year ago.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office took control of the investigation, according to Ocean County authorities, because many of the Senatores’ relatives worked in law enforcement there.

A review of records by The Star-Ledger showed the boy’s paternal grandmother, Gloria Senatore, was a lieutenant in the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office until her retirement in 2010. Her husband, Anthony Senatore, was a detective with the Jackson Police Department and also retired in 2010.

In addition, Gloria Senatore’s father, William Gallant, was captain of detectives in the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office until he retired in 1995.

The day after the shooting, Anthony and Melissa Senatore and their children were in Bayville, staying at the home of his father, the elder Anthony.

"All I can do is offer my condolences from my family to that little boy’s family," the elder Anthony Senatore said. "My heart — I can’t even express it in words."

Star-Ledger staff writer Jason Grant contributed to this report.

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