Deputies say the recording undercut his first account and became central to a manslaughter case in Oakland Park.
OAKLAND PARK, FL — Broward County deputies have charged a 41-year-old man with manslaughter after investigators said video recorded inside an Oakland Park efficiency showed him handing his girlfriend a loaded handgun and urging her to shoot herself moments before she suffered a fatal gunshot wound.
Miguel Hernandez was arrested Sunday in the death of Camille Mary McGonigle, 37, who was wounded Jan. 24 and died Feb. 9, according to investigators and jail records. The case drew attention because deputies say Hernandez first told them McGonigle shot herself after making suicidal statements, but later evidence led detectives to conclude he helped create the deadly encounter. Prosecutors are now seeking to keep him jailed as the case moves forward.
Deputies and Oakland Park Fire Rescue responded around 2 p.m. Jan. 24 to the 4000 block of Northeast Eighth Avenue, where the couple lived in a small efficiency unit. When first responders arrived, McGonigle was near the doorway with a gunshot wound to the head and was still breathing, investigators said. Hernandez was nearby with blood on his hands, crying and shouting for help. Detectives later said a video recorded shortly before the shooting captured the couple in a verbal argument inside the room. According to investigators, the recording shows Hernandez leaving, then returning, chambering a round in a handgun and handing it to McGonigle. The report says he can be heard telling her, in substance, to go ahead and do it. After the shot, detectives said, he yelled, “Oh my God, baby, oh my God,” and told his mother to call 911.
Authorities said the video became the key piece of evidence because it sharply differed from Hernandez’s initial account. Detectives said he told them McGonigle had made suicidal comments before and that he did not think she would actually fire the weapon. One report said Hernandez told investigators he was “calling her bluff.” The sheriff’s office later said that although McGonigle discharged the gun herself, Hernandez “actively facilitated and escalated the incident.” Investigators said his actions included racking the slide to chamber a round, handing over the firearm and repeatedly encouraging her to shoot herself immediately before the gun went off. Local reports identified the address as 4801 N.E. Eighth Ave. and said projectile fragments struck a mirror on a nearby dresser. Detectives also said they found the gun on top of clothing in a laundry basket just inside the unit after the shooting. What is still unclear from public records is how long the argument lasted, whether anyone else saw the video being recorded in real time, and whether prosecutors plan to file any additional counts tied to the firearm.
The investigation also produced evidence unrelated to the shooting count but included in Hernandez’s arrest. Deputies said that during a search of the efficiency they found a black pouch with two small glass pipes commonly used to smoke drugs, and another report said Hernandez had a glass pipe in his pocket. Jail and court reporting from South Florida outlets described multiple drug possession charges in addition to the manslaughter count. Hernandez’s mother publicly defended him after his arrest, saying her son was not involved in McGonigle’s shooting and that McGonigle killed herself. She said she heard one gunshot and had never seen violence between the couple during the two to three years they lived together. Her statement sets up a likely dispute over intent, causation and what the law requires prosecutors to prove when the fatal shot was fired by the victim but, detectives say, after direct encouragement and assistance from the defendant. No public filing reviewed in media reports suggested that detectives had accused Hernandez of pulling the trigger himself.
The legal path now centers on whether the state can prove manslaughter with a firearm under these facts. Hernandez, 41, was booked into the Broward County Main Jail and ordered held without bond at an initial court appearance, according to local reports. One judge described the case as highly unusual and not routine. NBC Miami reported that prosecutors were seeking to keep Hernandez jailed while he awaits trial and that a hearing was scheduled for Thursday, March 26. As of the latest reports, Hernandez remained in custody. Public reporting has not yet laid out in detail whether the state intends to rely mainly on the video, on Hernandez’s own statements to detectives, on forensic evidence from inside the room, or on some combination of all three. It is also not yet clear whether defense lawyers will challenge how investigators interpreted the video, the timing of what was said before the shot, or whether Hernandez’s conduct legally caused McGonigle’s death. Those questions are likely to shape the next court filings.
The scene described by investigators was tight, cluttered and intimate, the kind of small living space where every movement was close and visible. Detectives said McGonigle fell near the threshold, with part of her body extending into the yard and blood pooling around her head. Hernandez’s first words after deputies arrived, according to reports, were pleas to save her. That raw aftermath now sits beside the sheriff’s later conclusion that the confrontation had been pushed to a fatal point before the trigger was pulled. The contrast has given the case much of its force: a boyfriend crying for help after the shot, and a recording that investigators say captured him urging it on. McGonigle died more than two weeks later at Broward Health Medical Center, turning what began as a shooting response into a death investigation and then a manslaughter prosecution. For now, the public record remains centered on the video, the couple’s argument and the question of criminal responsibility in the minutes before the gun fired.
The case stood Thursday with Hernandez jailed without bond and facing a manslaughter count as prosecutors prepared for the next hearing. The next milestone is the scheduled court proceeding in Broward County, where lawyers are expected to address detention and the early handling of the evidence.
Author note: Last updated March 26, 2026.