The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner's Office has identified Preston Orlando as the at his Gilroy home Thursday evening.
The toddler is the son of Brandon Orlando, a nine-year veteran of the San Jose Police Department, SJDP Spokesman Sgt. Jason Dwyer said.
"[The department] will give him as much time off as he needs," Dwyer said. "His family's going to go through some pretty hard times."
Several pre-teen children were present when Preston was shot one time in the upstairs bedroom of his residence located on the 7500 block of Kentwood Court.
The children, who were inside the toddler’s home, aren’t believed to be directly involved in the shooting, Gilroy Police Sgt. Chad Gallacinao said.
All personnel from the Gilroy Police Department working Thursday evening responded to the call, made by the victim’s family member, that a 3-year-old boy was shot. Roughly 20 Gilroy police officers, including members of the anti-crime team, traffic division, detectives, and administration, were on scene to render medical care to the toddler and ensure he was immediately transported to Saint Louise Regional Hospital, Gallacinao said.
“All our personnel that responded, they also have families and a lot of those families have children,” Gallacinao said. “When you talk about the death of a 3-year-old, you talk about something that’s very dear to our hearts, so a lot of the officers were very deeply impacted about what had happened—what they had seen.”
GPD personnel did everything possible to ensure the child received the appropriate medical care, but the toddler died en route to the hospital, Gallacinao said.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and Santa Clara County Medical Examiner’s Office are investigating the incident with the GPD.
A district attorney and medical examiner were on scene Thursday evening conducting the preliminary investigation, which confirmed the victim was shot with a handgun, Gallacinao said.
Whether the child was playing with the gun inside the home and accidentally shot himself or was shot by a playmate is unknown. Police are investigating how the shooting occurred and are looking into how the handgun was stored in the home.
“There are state laws that determine how firearms are to be safely stored in a residence,” Gallacinao said. “Part of the investigation will determine how the firearm was stored.”
Gallacinao couldn't comment on whether the handgun is a police-issued firearm, if additional weapons were found inside the home or why the incident is believed to be accidental.
The Santa Clara County Child Death Protocol was alerted to ensure the incident is being investigated to the fullest extent.
“We will use all available resources we have and call upon more if needed to investigate what happened,” Gallacinao said. “Even know this is tragic, we will be objective, collectively, to determine how this happened.”
The medical examiner's office should be in the process of conducting an autopsy of the toddler, Gallacinao said.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to contact the Gilroy Police Department at 408-846-0350. Parties wishing to remain anonymous may call We-Tip at 1-800-782-7463 (800-78-Crime).
Patch will update this article when and if more information becomes available.
—The Bay City News Service contributed to this report.
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