During a discussion of gun control at Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate between Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Walz revealed his son had been close to a shooting in St. Paul in 2023.

“I think all the parents watching tonight, this is your biggest nightmare,” said Walz. “I got a 17 year old, and he witnessed a shooting at a community center playing volleyball. Those things don’t leave you.”

Walz’s son Gus, who at the time was 16 and attending St. Paul Central High School, was at the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center at Oxford Community Center across the street from the school when an employee shot a 16-year-old boy in the head in January 2023.

The teen survived the shooting, though has lasting brain injuries, according to a lawsuit filed by his family against the city. The parks employee who shot the teen, Exavir Dwayne Binford Jr., then 26, was initially charged with attempted murder and later pleaded guilty to first-degree assault. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this year.

‘Too many of us have this’

Republican vice presidential candidate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), and Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, participate in a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in New York City. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In a policy-centered debate between the Democratic and Republican presidential running mates marked by civility, Vance extended sympathies to Walz for what his son experienced.

“Tim, first of all, I didn’t know that your 17 year old witnessed the shooting. And I’m sorry about that and hope he’s doing OK,” he said, to thanks from Walz. “Christ, have mercy. It is awful,” Vance continued.

Walz also referenced the shooting during a Sept. 12 campaign speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he used it to criticize Vance, who had described school shootings as a “fact of life” in America when he called for more security at schools, the Associated Press reported.

“Think about that. Now, families forever broken. Too many of us have been there,” Walz told a crowd of supporters last month. “My own son was in a location where someone was shot in the head. Too many of us have this.”

Walz has shared the story with the media in the past, though this is the first time it has received widespread attention. Minnesota Public Radio said the governor shared with a reporter this spring that his son was at the community center when the shooting happened.

The shooting

Police cordon off the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center in St. Paul after a shooting on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. (Nick Woltman / Pioneer Press)

Court documents say Binford shot then 16-year-old JuVaughn Turner in the head after an altercation between Binford, Turner and two other teenagers outside the community center, which is on the east side of Lexington Avenue across the street from Central High School.

Binford was trying to prevent people from entering the community center after the building was placed on lockdown following a report of trouble at Central High School earlier in the day. He reportedly got into an argument with a girl who had let her brother into the building, according to court documents.

When Binford ran into her later as he left work, two boys attempted to intervene and they got into a fight. But when the fight had ended, Binford took out his pistol and shot Turner, according to court documents.

Binford had initially pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and argued he had shot Turner in self-defense. He later agreed to plead guilty to a charge of second-degree assault in exchange for prosecutors dropping the more serious charge.

Turner’s family has filed a lawsuit against the city of St. Paul for failing to fire Binford for what they called a pattern of violence and threats against minors while he worked for the Parks and Recreation department.

Walz record on guns

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News, with Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in New York. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press)

Minnesota’s governor once touted his “A” rating from the National Rifle Association for his support for gun rights when he was a Democratic congressman for a conservative-leaning district in the south of the state.

Since he ran for governor in 2018, Walz has shredded that credential by calling for stricter gun control measures, including a ban on “assault weapons,” a term that generally applies to semiautomatic firearms like the AR-15, which are modeled after military rifles.

As governor, Walz has been able to sign gun control legislation into law with the help of Democratic-Farmer-Labor majorities in the state House and Senate. They say the new laws will protect the public by keeping guns out of the wrong hands.

In 2023 they enacted universal background checks for gun sales and created the option for courts to issue extreme risk protection orders, also known as a “red flag” law, which allows courts to order confiscation of weapons from people deemed a danger to themselves or others.

And this year, Walz also signed a bill stiffening penalties for “straw purchases,” where an eligible person buys a firearm on an ineligible person’s behalf. The bill came after the killing of two police officers and a firefighter in Burnsville by a man who got a weapon through his girlfriend, a federal indictment alleged.

Asked by CBS News debate moderator Norah O’Donnell why he changed his stance on guns, Walz said he met with parents of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting in Connecticut, which took the lives of 26, including 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7.

Check back for updates to this story.

Related Articles

A look at false and misleading claims during the vice presidential debate

Some of the most notable quotes from the JD Vance-Tim Walz vice presidential debate

Vance and Walz keep it civil in a policy-heavy discussion: VP debate takeaways

Key swing state election faces ‘daunting’ level of uncertainty after storm ravages multiple counties

How one preschool uses PAW Patrol to teach democracy