NEWS: US
A one-year-old child accidentally kills his father.

A father was acci­den­tal­ly shot dead inside his home by his tod­dler, who found a loaded gun, picked it up and pulled the trig­ger, police said.

Dustin Wal­ters, 25, was rushed to hos­pi­tal on Decem­ber 5 after offi­cers found him suf­fer­ing from a gun­shot wound when respond­ing to reports of a shoot­ing at his home in the 100 block of E. 64th Street, Savan­nah at 5:30 p.m.

He was rushed to Memo­r­i­al Med­ical Cen­ter, where he died of his injuries, the Savan­nah Police Depart­ment said.

Police said he was “acci­den­tal­ly” shot dead by a child under the age of two.

They haven’t con­firmed Wal­ters’ rela­tion­ship with the child, but Wal­ters has a one-year-old son, Mars Cameron Wal­ters, with his wife, Tori.

“The pre­lim­i­nary inves­ti­ga­tion deter­mined that Wal­ters was injured when a tod­dler, just under 2 years old, found and fired the hand­gun, hit­ting Wal­ters,” police said.

Details of the inves­ti­ga­tion into the inci­dent were not made pub­lic until Decem­ber 14, when inves­ti­ga­tors said a child was involved in the shooting.

Dustin Wal­ters, 25, was rushed to hos­pi­tal on Decem­ber 5 after offi­cers found him suf­fer­ing from a gun­shot wound when respond­ing to reports of a shoot­ing at his home in block 100 of E.

Fam­i­ly mem­bers were inside the Wal­ters House when tragedy struck at 5:30 a.m. on Decem­ber 5

Inves­ti­ga­tors did not dis­close the type of weapon used but con­firmed that fam­i­ly mem­bers of the vic­tim were present in the house when the shot was fired.

They added that the inci­dent was “acci­den­tal”. It is not clear if any rel­a­tives face crim­i­nal charges for the shooting.

A Wal­ters obit­u­ary described him as a fam­i­ly man who lived in Savan­nah and worked for Nel­son Com­pa­ny, a real estate devel­op­ment company.

The vic­tim was buried on Decem­ber 10 in Rin­con, Geor­gia, his home­town. He is sur­vived by his wife Tori and tod­dler son, Mars Cameron Walters.

The Savan­nah Police Depart­ment did not dis­close whether the tod­dler and Wal­ters were relat­ed
“We are mourn­ing with the Wal­ters fam­i­ly,” Savan­nah Police Chief Roy Minter said in a statement.

“As a par­ent, I can’t imag­ine what this fam­i­ly is going through or will con­tin­ue to go through in the years to come. What we want to make sure now is that par­ents are aware that, although rare, these inci­dents can hap­pen with trag­ic results.