Boy Dies. . .

Montalvo, 26, told State Police he was handling the weapon in preparation for either hunting or target shooting the following day. He had scheduled a day off from work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he is a nuclear materials scientist, State Police Sgt. Chris Valdez said. Montalvo loaded the rifle and clicked the trigger once. Nothing happened. He pulled the trigger again, firing the weapon, and striking Aiden, who was approximately 14 feet away, in the hallway, in the center of his chest.
Montalvo was attempting to give his son CPR when first responders arrived at the scene, court documents state. Esquibel-Montalvo arrived minutes later, but by then, Aiden had died.
Montalvo was then arrested for child abuse resulting in death, a first-degree felony. As he was taken to State Police's Española office he kept repeating, "Oh, my God."
"He didn't believe what was happening," Valdez said.
Montalvo-Esquibel told police her husband would not have killed Aiden on purpose. Valdez said Montalvo-Esquivel cried throughout her interview, devastated at what happened. She also told police that she knew of no plan for Montalvo to go hunting or target shooting the next day — he was going to accompany his three oldest girls on a school field trip, Valdez said.

‘Extreme Negligence’
Court documents describe Montalvo's account of the events leading up to Aiden's death. Montalvo retrieved the rifle out of a shed to assemble it. He placed the gun on the kitchen floor, next to the back door, and sat down to play a computer game while the children watched TV.
Hearing a sound like metal on metal, Montalvo returned to the kitchen to find Aiden next to the rifle.
"(Montalvo) rechecked the rifle to make sure his son could not get to it," documents state.
Montalvo told police he then started to get dinner ready, before picking up the rifle again to make sure he had cleared it, by squeezing the trigger.
"(Montalvo) advised he then, not consciously, placed a 10 round magazine inside the rifle," documents state. "(Montalvo) advised he attempted a secondary press check on the rifle squeezing the trigger one more time."
This time he fatally wounded his son.
The gun in question was an assault rifle of the type referred to as an AR-15, according to State Police Agent Joe Schiel, who processed the crime scene. Schiel said he would characterize the gun not as a hunting rifle, but a target rifle or vermin rifle, for picking off rodents from a great distance.
The rifle was one of between five and 10 guns found throughout the house, Schiel said, not one of which was secured in a gun safe or with a trigger lock. Some of the guns were stored up high, out of the childrens' reach, but some were not.
"I'm very concerned about the extreme, extreme negligence that has been discovered through the investigation of this case," said Chief Deputy District Attorney A.J. Salazar, who has two young children himself. "You always try to separate yourself (emotionally), but from a legal standpoint there is no excuse for bringing out high-powered weapons that are designed to kill."
The amount of bond set for Montalvo by Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Alex Naranjo was another cause of concern for Salazar, who said he was surprised Montalvo was let out on 10 percent of $25,000, or $2,500.
"It was an accident, don't you think?" Naranjo said of his decision. "Considering the circumstances, I thought that was fair."
"(Montalvo) is taking it real hard," Montalvo's father, Pablo Montalvo, said. "He carries around a little T-shirt that belonged to Aiden."
Neighbors described Montalvo as a dedicated family man who grew up in Cordova but never succumbed to the temptations of drugs.
Neighbor Nancy Sandoval, who said she has known Montalvo since he was 2 years old, ran over to the Montalvo residence after hearing the shot go off and said she will never forget the traumatic scene at the house.
"(Montalvo and Montalvo-Esquibel) tried and tried to have a little boy, and they finally had him," Sandoval said. "I just feel so sorry for them, I think everybody here in Cordova feels the same way."