Heartbreak of father after daughter's friend is killed playing with his gun

California man Todd Francis faces four years in prison on child endangerment charges after a gun he owned and kept in his garage killed his daughter's friend. Francis pled guilty two counts of endangering a child this week, but said the threat of prison paled in comparison to the pain of responsibility he now feels. 'I'm still in shock,' he told ABC News. He recalls the June 2013 day of the incident as an ordinary one in which he had gone grocery shopping and left his teenage son in charge.

The computer specialist returned to find his home behind police tape and surrounded by law enforcement vehicles. 'I had groceries in my hand and you know...It was like every police squad car was in my neighborhood,' he said. After he left daughter Cierra, 9, and her friend Eric Klyaz, 10, had found Francis' 9 mm pistol and were playing with it. The gun went off, and Eric was killed. Francis told police the gun had been kept unloaded, stashed in a box inside the garage separate from the ammunition. Prosecutors argued it must have been loaded.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2560496/I-thought-like-son-Heartbreak-father-daughters-friend-killed-playing-gun.html