Man allegedly shot, killed by young son in accident

A 2-year-old boy apparently shot and killed his father in

what police in Alabama on Wednesday called a horrible

accident.

Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector said investigators had all

but ruled out suicide and other possible scenarios in the

death of Divine Vaniah Chambliss, 31. The Jefferson

County Medical Examiner's office has conducted an

autopsy but police said the results had not been submitted

as of Wednesday evening.

Chambliss was found shot once in the head in an

apartment on Tuesday afternoon, and no one else was

inside other than the toddler.

Investigators found no sign of an intruder or a self-inflicted

wound, Rector said, and police know there was a

semiautomatic pistol in the apartment, located in suburban

Birmingham.

"It wouldn't be a physical obstacle for a 2½-year-old boy to

pull a trigger on a semiautomatic handgun," said Rector.

The boy lived with his mother in the apartment with a

sibling who was fathered by the same man, Rector said, and

the man often stayed at the apartment to care for his son

during the day while the woman was a work.

The woman found the man dead in the apartment when she

returned home and called authorities, police said.

Rector said the man's death appeared to be a "horrible

accident" resulting from a child getting hold of a handgun.

"Everyone knows it's a good idea not to have guns around

kids, but we don't always practice it," he said.

Source:emirates247