Man admits to child endangerment in 3-year-old son's shooting in family's home

A 31-year-old Minneapolis man has pleaded guilty to child endangerment in connection with the shooting of his 3-year-old son in the family's home.

Maceo A.C. Beckley entered his plea in Hennepin County District Court last week in an agreement with prosecutors in connection with the shooting around 8:45 p.m. on June 5 in a duplex near the intersection of N. Sheridan and N. 23rd avenues.

The plea deal calls for Beckley to serve four months in jail and has been reached under what is known as a stay of imposition. That means the felony conviction for child endangerment with a firearm will be reduced to a misdemeanor in three years if he successfully complies with the terms of his sentence and probation.

Beckley's sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 30, when Judge Peter Cahill will decide whether to accept or change the terms.

The boy's mother, Cydnie C. Zimmerman, 30, is also charged with felony endangerment of child by firearm for her alleged role in the shooting. She has a tentative trial date of Jan. 3.

Neither police in their public statements nor prosecutors in the complaint have said who fired the gun. The charges against both parents reference multiple children in the home at the time of the gunfire. Authorities have not released the boy's identity.

The boy has had at least two surgeries since being shot. The bullet left entrance and exit wounds and damaged his bowel and hip bone, the charges read.

Police searched the home and saw blood on the stairs leading to a bedroom and more blood in that room. The search turned up a .40-caliber handgun in the cushion of a living room couch. In the bedroom, police found a bullet and a spent cartridge, a holster with a 10-millimeter magazine, loose ammunition in various locations and a gun safe.

Much of what was located, including the handgun, were "accessible to the children in the home," the charges read. Zimmerman later told police that the gun belonged to Beckley and it was in the bedroom when her son was shot. She said Beckley set it down and left the bedroom.