14 DAY TRIAL // A 7-year-old boy whose identity has not been released by the police was shot in the chest and killed in the parking lot of a gun store in Pennsylvania, it has emerged.
Details about the tragedy are still scarce at this time, with police refusing to offer more to the press.
Even so, the boy’s tragic death has already gotten international media attention and, for many, re-opened the conversation on guns and safety measures required when handling them.
“The boy was killed in the gun store’s parking lot, and scant details about the way the scene unfolded have been released. The 7-year-old was strapped in a booster seat at the time of the presumably accidental shooting,” the Inquisitr writes.
“According to local news sources, the boy, 7, was killed in the gun store parking lot as his father backed out of a space at Twig’s Reloading Den, located at 8388 Sharon Mercer Road in East Lackawannock Township,” adds the same media outlet.
It also quotes a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh as having learned from sources on the scene that it was the father’s gun which had discharged and killed the boy.
Apparently, the father was in the store to sell a hand gun, which, for some reason, he could not do. As he was backing out of the parking lot, his gun accidentally went off, hitting the boy in the chest and killing him on the spot.
Eyewitnesses tell the press that no other gunshots were heard. Moreover, police arrived immediately on the scene, which would seem to back up the theory that it was the father’s gun that went off, and that he dialed 911 immediately.
For the time being, though, this is just speculation.
Authorities are now investigating the circumstances in which the tragic incident took place, and will probably announce if the above theory is accurate or not.
[Update, December 10, 2012]: An earlier version of the article erroneously stated that the gun had "misfired." It has now been corrected to read "discharged." A correction has also been made to the headline, to read "at" instead of "in." We thank the readers who pointed out the mistake in the comments section.