Parents Of Cedar Hill Child Who Accidentally Shot, Killed Himself Say Gun Was 'Locked In Closet On Very High Shelf'
CEDAR HILL, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Cedar Hill Police believe an 11-year-old boy got a hold of a gun in his home on Saturday night and accidentally shot and killed himself.
Daron Sneed, Jr. was in the sixth grade at Permenter Middle School. His parents told CBS 11 he played the saxophone in the band and was involved in student council.
Cedar Hill iSD had counselors on hand Monday to talk to students about what happened. Parents are having some tough conversations, too.
"I just want to make sure he's alright mentally, because he says it hasn't hit him," said Costello Good, whose son had several classes with Daron at Permenter. "No one is expecting their child to be leaving at such a young age like that."
According to police, Daron's parents went to an event Saturday night, so his grandfather was watching him and his younger sibling.
The grandfather told police he was downstairs with the 8-year-old while Daron was upstairs playing video games. When he heard a noise, he went upstairs and found Daron on the floor in his parents' room with a handgun near him.
Detectives are looking into where the gun was kept and how the boy was able to get a hold of it.
"The piece of the ongoing investigation is just going to be to interview everybody to try to put all the pieces of the puzzle together to figure out how this happened and more importantly, how can we prevent this from happening again," said Cedar Hill Police Chief Ely Reyes.
Reyes says accidental shootings involving children occur far too often.
"If you have firearms in your home, it's your responsibility to make sure they're locked up and they're stored in the appropriate manner to make sure no child has the ability to gain access to them," he said.
Daron's parents told CBS 11 the gun was kept locked in the closet on a very high shelf.
They say they have no idea how their son figured out how to get to it, and they hope what happened to him serves as a warning to other families.