Two-year-old may have shot his father in the head by accident
This is the father who was apparently shot and killed by his toddler son inside an Alabama home.
Divine Vaniah Chambliss, 31, was found shot once in the head in the apartment in Hoover on Tuesday after the mother of his two-year-old son and young daughter returned home from work.
At the time of the shooting, no-one else was at home other than Chambliss and his son, Police Captain Gregg Rector said, and investigators found no sign of an intruder or a self-inflicted wound.
Rector said that officials have all but ruled out suicide and other possible scenarios - and that it appears likely the toddler got his hands on a semiautomatic pistol known to be in the apartment.
'It wouldn't be a physical obstacle for a 2 1/2-year-old boy to pull a trigger on a semiautomatic handgun,' he told AP, describing how the deadly shooting appeared to be a 'horrible accident'.
'Everyone knows it's a good idea not to have guns around kids, but we don't always practice it.'
The Jefferson County Medical Examiner's office has conducted an autopsy on Chambliss's body - which was found on a bed - but the results had not been disclosed as of Wednesday evening.
Officers rushed to The Cliffs apartment block at 3.06pm on Tuesday after the mother of Chambliss's two children returned from work to find him lying dead on a bed - and frantically called 911.
Chambliss was pronounced dead at the scene in suburban Birmingham. Detectives and crime scene investigators have now analysed the area and interviewed a number of family members.
It was these interviews that revealed the boy may have accidentally pulled the trigger.
The toddler lives with his mother and older sister in the apartment. His father often stayed at the apartment to care for him during the day while his mother was at work, authorities revealed.
Earlier on Wednesday, Rector had told AL.com: 'It was reported to us that he was accidentally shot by a toddler, but we haven't verified that. It's too early to tell if that indeed is going to be the case.'
On Facebook, Chambliss is listed as being married, while his daughter appears to be around five years old. It is unclear, however, whether his wife is the mother of his toddler son and daughter.
And though no national statistics are kept on the number of kids who accidentally fire a gun and injure or kill another child or adult, sadly, this kind of horrific tragedy has happened before.
Just last week, a Georgia woman was mortally wounded when her 4-year-old son shot her in the head. Mother and son were sitting in her parked car when the boy found the gun, thought it was a toy, and fired.
The incident is an obvious reminder that a gun in the home is 22 percent more likely to be used in a homicide, suicide, or accidental shooting than in self-defense.
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im starting to find it hard to feel bad when these accidents happen