14-year-old charged with killing Tri-Cities classmate while playing with a gun after school

A 14-year-old is accused of killing a classmate after finding a gun in an unlocked safe at a friend’s house.

Christopher Silva Morales is facing first- and second-degree manslaughter charges in Benton-Franklin Juvenile Court nearly seven months after Joseph Martinez was fatally wounded inside a Canyon Place home.

He has yet to appear in court on the charge and remains out of custody. Under Washington state law, the case will remain in juvenile court.

Silva Morales is accused of playing with a pistol in a bedroom of another teen’s home in February when the gun fired, court documents said.

The shot hit Martinez, 13, in the neck and he died at a local hospital.

Martinez’s mother, Sandra Ramirez, has been demanding some accountability for her son’s death. She told the Tri-City Herald this week she’s grateful for Benton County prosecutors moving forward with charges.

But she continues to be upset with the parents of the teen who left the gun safe unlocked and open, according to court documents.

She’s begun selling coffee mugs, totes and shirts with the motto “Gun Safety Matters,” along with her son’s name and the number 23, a tribute to her son’s love of Michael Jordan.

“He really loved basketball,” Ramirez told the Tri-City Herald. “That was his dream, to become a professional NBA player.”

She is primarily raising money to pay for her own attorney as she considers a civil lawsuit against the parents of the teen where the shooting happened.

Ramirez said she remains frustrated that she was told it was an accident, but she wanted to see someone take responsibility for letting the boys get access to a gun in the first place.

“It’s not children’s responsibility to make sure that they don’t have access to firearms,” she said. “It’s on us to make sure they we secure them.”

She also is hoping to use the money to support gun safety organizations, but hasn’t picked one yet to help.

Her attorney, Joe Kuhlman, told the Herald that at this point they are waiting until the criminal prosecution is finished before pursuing a civil action. The gun owners names have not been released to the public.

They feel bad for the teen charged with manslaughter, but, “Our concern is culpability,” he said.

“The parents made it so easy to have access,” he said of the homeowners.

February teen shooting

The three teens involved in the case were students at Horse Heaven Hills Middle School in Kennewick and decided to go to one of the boy’s homes after school on Thursday, Feb. 29.

While Ramirez previously said she didn’t believe the teens were her son’s friends, investigators told her that her son willingly joined them.

The teens were searching the house for a cat, when they discovered the unlocked gun safe in one boy’s parents’ bedroom. Inside, they found a black, semi-automatic pistol, court documents said.

Silva Morales allegedly told that teen that he wanted to hold the gun, but was told that he couldn’t. The teen picked up the gun anyway, and took it out of its holster, court documents said.

As Silva Morales began playing with it, the teen who lived there tried to get it back, but Silva Morales told him to wait and began pointing it around, court documents said.

“All the boys were standing around the safe and the gun then fired while (Silva Morales) was still messing with it,” court documents said.

Martinez was hit in neck and Silva Morales dropped the gun and started to try to staunch the blood. The other teen called 911 and his parents.

Police found the three teens inside when they arrived and tried to slow Martinez’s bleeding until medics arrived, but they noted he’d already lost a lot of blood.

Later, when police searched the house, they found a Walther PK .380 automatic pistol and a .380 caliber shell on the floor for the master bedroom closet, court documents said.

An autopsy showed that Martinez was shot once and the shot appeared relatively level, which confirmed the teens’ descriptions of Silva Morales pointing the gun around the room, said the documents.

This story was originally published September 18, 2024 at 3:53 PM.