PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Charges have been dropped against a fired St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office deputy after his daughter was wounded by gunfire when a rifle discharged.
Daniel Allan Weber, 35, was charged with felony child neglect with great bodily harm and misdemeanors of using a firearm while under the influence of alcoholic beverages and culpable negligence. The State Attorney Office dropped the charges Friday.
According to Weber's arrest report, Port St. Lucie police officers responded to a home on Lakehurst Drive just after 3 p.m. on Nov. 23.
According to police documents, Weber told Port St. Lucie detectives he was showing his son how to clean his AR-15 the day before Thanksgiving. Investigators said Weber's gun discharged after falling off a TV tray in his home, striking his daughter in the hip.
The victim was taken to a local hospital where she needed "immediate surgery and extensive care," according to the arrest report.
In the arrest affidavit it states Weber's son told detectives "his father typically has a few beers and few mixed drinks before work, and then maybe a couple more on his day off."
Chief Assistant State Attorney Steve Gosnell told WPTV news partner TCPalm several issues factored into the decision, including consumption of alcohol.
Weber’s blood alcohol content measured 0.052 with the legal limit to drive a car at 0.08.
In terms of firearms, state law presumes a person to not be impaired with a blood alcohol level of less than 0.05.
Child abuse great harm charge has a high standard of culpable negligence, he said.
“Culpable negligence is defined by a course of conduct showing a reckless disregard of human life, or the safety of persons exposed to the dangerous effects,” Gosnell said. “The jury instructions say that culpable negligence is such a high degree of negligence, it's equivalent to the intentional violation of someone's rights.”
In this case, Gosnell said Weber removed the magazine, and didn’t see a cartridge in the chamber. Gosnell said there was a cartridge in the chamber, which is something that is not uncommon.
“His statement, and then compared to the 14-year-old’s statement, they said the same thing, that the gun fell, and they went to grab it, and it went off,” Gosnell said.
Weber joined the agency in August 2022, working at the jail. He was fired Dec. 8 after failing to successfully complete his probationary term.
