‘He thought it was a toy.’ Toddler fatally shoots dad in grandma’s North Carolina home
A 2-year-old boy fatally shot his father with a gun he playfully picked up and fired at his grandmother’s home in Gastonia, multiple media outlets reported.
“He thought it was a toy,” the child’s grandmother told Charlotte Observer news partner WBTV while sitting on her front porch at the Cottages on 5th apartment complex Monday.
Police identified the victim as 29-year-old Markovia LaShawn Durham.
Police were called to the home in the 600 block of West Fifth Avenue at about 8:45 p.m. Sunday, according to a police report obtained by the Observer.
In the report, Officer J.M. Ridgeway lists the case under “homicide — murder and non-negligent manslaughter, felony.”
The report indicates no arrest and offers no details about how police believe Durham died.
In the “narrative information” field of the report, the officer includes only one sentence: “Juvenile Information Shielded by Law.”
“His father was feeding his son dinner when it happened,” the child’s grandmother told WBTV.
The toddler then “dropped the gun and ran outside,” WSOC reported, citing family members.
The .40-caliber Glock handgun “was not properly secured at the time of the shooting,” the Gaston Gazette reported.
Citing the ongoing investigation, Gastonia Police Chief Travis Brittain declined to discuss what police believe happened, according to the Gazette.
The child’s grandmother told WBTV she was “trying to to console the little baby, making sure he’s OK also. Like I said, he didn’t know, thought it was a toy.”
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 10:45 AM with the headline "‘He thought it was a toy.’ Toddler fatally shoots dad in grandma’s North Carolina home."