Feb. 20—A boy was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his face over the weekend and his older brother was charged following an incident in Española the suspect claims was accidental.

Española police charged 19-year-old Faustin Martinez Jr. of Abiquiú with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, alleging he admitted the shooting occurred while he and his younger brother were playing with a firearm.

The boy — whose name and age were not provided by police — was taken from Presbyterian Española Hospital to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque and survived an initial surgery, according to a criminal complaint filed against Martinez.

Prosecutors requested Martinez be kept in jail pending his trial, noting recent charges against him alleging violent crimes and two instances in 2023 in which Martinez failed to appear for court hearings.

Martinez was arrested Sunday and booked into the Rio Arriba County jail, Española police Chief Mizel Garcia said.

Prosecutors requested a hearing in early March to determine whether he should remain jailed.

Police allege in the criminal complaint Martinez had dropped off his younger brother at the Española hospital’s emergency room just after 9 p.m. Sunday. The boy had suffered a gunshot wound to his right eye and a bullet was lodged in the left side of his head, the complaint states.

During an interview with investigators Martinez “was uncooperative and continued to lie to detectives,” police wrote. The statement says Martinez initially told investigators his younger brother had been shot by an unknown male at the skate park in Española.

Martinez “then changed his story,” police wrote, saying the shooting happened “by an unknown male” at a residence on the west side of Española. After more questioning, Martinez admitted to shooting his brother “by accident” at the residence, and that the shooting happened “when they were playing with the firearm,” the statement says.

Martinez told police the gun belonged to his friend, according to the complaint.

When police questioned Martinez’s father, he told them Martinez and his younger brother had left their house in Abiquiú at 11 a.m. that day to pick up groceries, the complaint says. His phone calls to Martinez that evening had gone unanswered.

Martinez’s father told police his sons did not have any firearms, and that he only had hunting rifles he stored at a relative’s house.

Garcia said police were still investigating the circumstances of the shooting.

Prosecutors argued in a request for pretrial detention Martinez poses “a clear danger to both his family and his community.”

They included affidavits submitted by police in two cases filed in 2023. In one, police alleged Martinez battered his older brother — described in the affidavit as autistic and nonverbal — and broke items throughout his father’s house.

In another, police alleged Martinez broke his father’s television and a glass door and stole his pickup.