AURORA | The 17-year-old brother of a 10-year-old boy who died in what was described as an accidental shooting last week in north Aurora has been charged with child abuse.

Anthony “Jaliel” Hemmings-Taylor died Friday, June 3, at a home in the 1500 block of Galena Street. Police said the boy’s brother, Jalecc Celanco Taylor, 17, was arrested on a felony charge of negligent child abuse resulting in death. He is being held on a $10,000 bond at an Adams County juvenile facility, police said.

During a memorial for the boy Monday night, June 6, his family and other community leaders said the boy died after he accidentally shot himself.

In a statement Tuesday, police said the case is still under investigation and no further details are being released. The Adams County Coroner’s report subsequently determined the shooting was a homicide and not a self-inflicted wound.

At Monday’s rally, Anthony Taylor, the deceased boy’s grandfather, made a plea to gun owners.

“Put them up!” he shouted to the crowd of more than 200 gathered at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in north Aurora. “Lock them up, guns kill.”

While police have not confirmed that the boy shot himself, the family and local leaders — including Arapahoe County Commissioner Bill Holen — said the boy died of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound.

After a memorial at the library, the crowd — many holding signs and dabbing at tears — walked the few blocks east to Anthony’s home.

Taylor said the death of his grandson, who the family called “Baby Anthony,” has changed him forever, prompting him to urge gun owners to handle their firearms safely.

“Guns don’t play,” he said.

State Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, whose son was gunned down more than a decade ago, said the time has long passed for the community to get serious about gun violence.

“Not one more needs to be impacted by gun violence,” the Aurora Democrat said. “Enough is enough.”

Fields said Tuesday that she isn’t planning to push any legislation mandating trigger locks or other gun safety measures, but she wants to study ways to make sure more guns are secured. She said she considered trigger lock laws before but consistently heard from constituents that locking their guns made them difficult to access if there was an emergency.

Kristen Pough, president of the Aurora NAACP’s Youth Council, said the community can find some good in the boy’s death by using it to teach other kids the importance of being safe around guns.

“His legacy will live on through the lessons we teach our kids,” she said.

Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz told the crowd that the boy’s death demands that the community take action against violence.

“Somewhere, somehow, something broke down,” he said.

While speakers and many in the crowd at Monday’s rally spoke about Taylor’s death being an accident — and others spoke about the need for gun safety — police have not yet confirmed that the boy’s death was an accident.

Last year, when a 7-year-old boy was accidentally shot and wounded by a 12-year-old friend while they played with a pistol, prosecutors opted not to file any charges.

In that case, which happened July 9 at a home on Vaughn Street near East 10th Avenue, police said a 12-year-old boy found the gun and showed it to a group of other children. He loaded the weapon and when he went to take it back from another child, the gun went off, striking the 7-year-old boy in the head.

Arapahoe County prosecutors investigated but decided there was not enough evidence to charge either the 12-year-old boy or the gun’s owner.

Prosecutors said the owner hid the gun in a jacket inside a closet, hid the magazine and ammunition in a separate place, and didn’t tell the child where the gun was.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The initial version of this story noted that the family of Hemmings-Taylor said the shooting of Anthony “Jaliel” Hemmings-Taylor was an accidental, self-inflicted shooting. A June 9 report from the Adams County Coroner’s Office determined the shooting to be a homicide and not self-inflicted. The story has been amended to reflect this development.