Police: Gun used in boy’s shooting was ‘out and unsecured’

By Mary Manning

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 | 3:10 p.m.

A man who accompanied Alex Kopystenski and his son, 5-year-old Giovanni Kopystenski, to fill a prescription at a Walgreens Monday night heard the fatal gunshot and turned to see the boy bleeding from his head, according to a Metro Police report.

The father has been charged with one count of felony child endangerment. He was taken to the Clark County Detention Center and released after posting a $3,000 bail, police said.

Alex Kopystenski, 31, and his friend, David Jones, rushed the boy to Spring Valley Hospital after the shooting at the Walgreens on Warm Springs Road at Durango Drive, the police report said. The child was taken to University Medical Center where he died at 1:25 a.m. Tuesday, police said.

The boy was sitting in the passenger's side of his father's 1999 GMC Suburban, wearing a seatbelt, the report said.

As Jones spoke from a backseat to a clerk at the pharmacy window, he heard the gunshot and turned, seeing Giovanna bleeding from the head, the police report said. Alex Kopystenski then picked up the .40 caliber Glock handgun from between the front seats, according to the police.

Jones told police that Alex Kopystenski left the gun "out and unsecured" at home and carried the gun with him when he was not at home. The gun had been placed on the console between the front seats before the trip to Walgreens, Jones told police.

Giovanni Kopystenski was an Autistic child and had limited speech and needed close supervision because he "was constantly getting into things," Jones said in the report.

The weapon was registered to Alex Kopystenski, the police report said.

Alex Kopystenski had custody of the child after the boy's mother left the family. Kopystenski refused to give a statement to police and asked for a lawyer, the report said.

Jones was arrested for unrelated warrants and taken to the Las Vegas City Jail.