Parents to appeal two-year sentence in fatal Pļavnieki shooting

The parents of a boy killed in a shooting involving two 12-year-old classmates in Pļavnieki say they will appeal a first-instance court ruling that sentenced the other boy’s father to two years in prison and 220 hours of community service. The case was reported by LSM.

The father, an employee of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, was convicted of violating firearm storage rules. The victims’ family says the sentence is too lenient given that two children died.

The shooting took place in February last year. The boys gained access to a firearm owned by one boy’s father. One boy accidentally shot the other, then shot himself in the head.

The family’s representative, Raimonds Štālbergs, said the victims did not understand how the court had weighed the public interest or considered how to prevent a similar incident. He said the ruling risked setting a precedent.

The family also asked the court to issue a separate ruling calling for the responsible authorities’ actions to be examined. The investigation found that the accused had lost the spare key to the gun safe, Štālbergs said. He argued that attention to the lost key and replacement of the safe could have affected the father’s conduct and responsibility.

Štālbergs said the case documents and ruling showed a careless attitude by the accused, and that the family had received no apology. The father’s lawyer declined to comment. The accused admitted guilt.

The prosecutor had asked the court to impose a sentence of three years and eight months in prison and requested the full ruling to consider what further steps to take.