A Night That Changed Everything: A Son Lost, A Family Shattered
You never expect to get that kind of call. Not from inside your own home. Not about your child.
On the evening of July 19, inside a modest apartment in Naples, Florida, something went horribly wrong. A father—Gregory Zecca—accidentally fired a gun. His son, Anthony, only 13, was hit. He didn’t make it.
No drugs. No fight. No criminal plot. Just a quiet home and a gun that should’ve never gone off.
Gregory isn’t some anonymous name on a report. He’s been in the public eye, part of his stepfather Duane “Dog” Chapman’s bounty hunting world—appearing on shows, podcasts, and in the periphery of that unique fame. But this wasn’t TV. This wasn’t action. This was a real-life nightmare playing out in a family that had already seen its share of pain.
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office responded quickly. Neighbors had heard a shot. It wasn’t chaos—just a single, irreversible sound. Police called it an accident. No arrests. No threat to the public. Just a father who made a mistake and a child who paid the ultimate price.
Anthony wasn’t just a statistic. He was a real kid. Smart. Playful. Curious. He and his dad had bonded over shooting ranges—photos from a few years back show them side-by-side, smiling. Maybe that’s what makes this so hard to process. The very thing they shared ended up stealing him away.
Duane and his wife Francie—Anthony’s grandparents—spoke through a statement. Brief. Measured. Grief doesn’t always lend itself to words. They asked for privacy. Prayers. Space to breathe.
This wasn’t a broken family. If anything, they seemed tight-knit in ways that aren’t always seen on camera. Gregory had spoken publicly about family, about strength through pain. And now, he’s living through a kind of pain that words can’t carry.
There’s no real conclusion here. No “why” that makes sense. Just a reminder of how fast it can all fall apart. A moment. A noise. And suddenly, life is before and after.
If you’ve got kids, maybe hug them tighter tonight. Say the things we all think we have time for. Because in one Naples home, time just ran out.