A woman in Arizona has turned herself in after unintentionally shooting a preschooler. Joanna Chalup Cortez became angry after allegedly breaking up with her boyfriend and threatened retaliation, but instead of doing something like slashing his car tires, she decided to get a firearm. In her rage, she didn’t realize the person coming out of the house wasn’t her intended target. Instead, it was a little boy. She fired, striking the boy in the face. In a serious stroke of luck, she didn’t kill him, but he was seriously injured. Now, the boy faces a long recovery both physically and emotionally from the traumatic incident.
Shortly before noon on January 6, 2026, Phoenix police were called to a home after a shooting, KNXV reported. When they arrived, they found a little boy with apparent gunshot wounds. He was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries. The suspect was no longer at the home when police arrived.
KNXV later reported that according to police, Cortez, 29, turned herself in the next day. She faces charges of aggravated assault and discharging a firearm at a residence.
The family of the boy, who has been identified as 4-year-old Qahsiem Sinclair, is speaking out, offering details about what happened that fateful afternoon.
“My brother’s (ex) girlfriend was outside the house going crazy and as I’m about to go see what’s going on, my older brother tells me to stay back. ‘I’m going to go talk to her.’ My son, he thought when my brother was going outside, he thought it was time to go outside and grabbed his scooter,” the boy’s father, Meishaq Sinclair, told AZ Family. “As soon as the first person opened the door, happened to be my son walking out with his scooter, she still did what she did. She saw the kid right there and still decided to do what she did. We need justice for Qahsiem.”
In home security camera footage obtained by AZ Family, Cortez reportedly can be seen in front of the home, shouting for someone to come out. She then pulls out what appears to be a rifle before shooting.
After the shooting, Cortez allegedly drove away. Later, she texted Qahsiem’s mother, according to court documents obtained by AZ Family.
“IM GOING TO THE COPS DONT WORRY…” she wrote. “IM ON THE WAY…” she added before writing “BECAUSE I DID NOT KNOW HE CAME OUT.”
Sinclair told KNXV that the bullet entered and exited through Qahsiem’s cheek, which led to him losing teeth. “Just by inches, my son would not be here by now. It’s crazy, I thought that was my son’s last breath. I thought that was it,” he said. Sinclair added his son was “bleeding so much it was like a movie.”
Days after the shooting, the boy remained hospitalized but was in good spirits for the most part. His father said he was “playing with his toys right now, still in shock, still traumatized a little bit.”
The family started a GoFundMe account to cover the unexpected medical expenses related to Qahsiem’s care. Thus far, it’s about halfway to its goal.
Joanna Chalup Cortez is being held on a $500,000 bond at Maricopa County Jail.
