Stepfather of fatally wounded girl taught gun safety

FRESNO — New details emerged regarding the May 29 shooting death of a 6-year-old girl by her younger brother in north Fresno on Thursday.

Jarred Dubois, the stepfather to Emily Lavender, admitted to detectives that the .45 caliber semi-automatic Springfield used in the shooting death of Lavender was stored under his bed in the master bedroom.

The gun was placed inside a box under Dubois’s bed and wasn’t locked, he told detectives. The .45 caliber handgun had one round in the chamber. Emily’s 2-year-old brother got the gun from under the bed and accidentally fired the weapon, hitting Emily in the chest.

Emily had been playing with her sisters at the time of the accident.

Police discovered 53 additional firearms inside the North Boyd Avenue home.

Dubois told officers that he was watching television in the living room when he heard the gunshot come from one of the bedrooms. He said that he took the gun away from his son, called 911, then performed CPR on Emily until emergency medical units arrived to his home.

The attorney for Dubois, Mark Coleman, described the current mental state of his client.

“He’s doing terrible,” Coleman said. “He lost his daughter. He realizes the trauma his entire family is going through, and this is a good man.”

Coleman added that Dubois is a former Marine who even taught gun safety in the military and to Boy Scouts. Coleman also confirmed that Dubois’ is a National Rifle Association instructor who owns most of the 53 guns stored inside the North Boyd Avenue residence.

“Jarred had a gun safe,” Coleman said. “His dad didn’t have a gun safe at his location at the time. So the guns were being stored in Jarred’s house in the gun safe.”

Dubois is currently facing a charge of negligent storage of a firearm that led to an accidental death. The case has gone to the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office for review.