In a quiet Fort Collins home, a day in early spring of 2022 was irrevocably shattered, leaving a family and community to grapple with a profound and preventable loss. The life of Roy McCola Summers, a bright-eyed and joyful six-year-old boy, was cut tragically short on the evening of April 10th. Emergency services were called to a residence on East Lincoln Avenue, where they discovered young Roy with a critical gunshot wound.
He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but the injury proved to be fatal.
In the days that followed, what was initially a heart-wrenching incident began to evolve into a criminal investigation. Detectives with the Fort Collins Police Services worked to piece together the events that led to the devastating moment. Their investigation revealed a somber picture of the circumstances. Authorities determined that Roy had found a handgun within his home and had accidentally shot himself. The focus of the investigation then shifted to how the young child was able to gain access to a deadly weapon.
The investigation concluded that the handgun belonged to Roy's mother, 40-year-old Rosinetta Mackall. It was alleged that she had taken the firearm out earlier in the day and had left it unsecured in a part of the house that her children could and did frequent. Several hours after the gun was left out, Roy discovered it with catastrophic consequences. The Larimer County Coroner's Office would later officially rule his death an accident.
Following the investigation, arrest warrants were issued for Rosinetta Mackall and her husband, 35-year-old Ron Matthews. Mackall faced serious charges, including felony child abuse resulting in death and unlawful storage of a firearm, a charge utilized for the first time in Fort Collins since its enactment the previous year. While Matthews was not living at the home at the time of the shooting, he faced charges of attempting to influence a public servant and tampering with physical evidence, as it was alleged that he had lied to investigators and interfered with evidence related to their conversations about the incident. Both Mackall and Matthews eventually turned themselves in to the authorities, leaving the community to mourn the loss of a young life and reflect on the grave responsibilities of firearm ownership.
