A Sandy Springs father left a loaded pistol in a fanny pack on his bed before his 2-year-old son laid down for a nap, pulled out the weapon and fatally shot himself, authorities said.
Richard Willis is facing charges of second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children after Wednesday’s tragedy, officials said.
Sandy Springs police officers were called to an apartment complex in the 2600 block of Sandalwood Drive, which is off Dunwoody Place and near Roswell Road, around 2 p.m. Wednesday. There, authorities said they found the toddler with a gunshot injury.
The child, identified in court records as River Willis, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The incident happened after Richard Willis and his wife returned home from a medical procedure and put the boy down for a nap, according to arrest warrants obtained Thursday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Willis told detectives he took off his fanny pack where he had kept the 9mm pistol and tossed it onto the bed in the master bedroom.
The boy was placed in his own bed for a nap and handed a cellphone, the records state. But when the device lost power, the child went downstairs and asked his father “to please lay with him until he goes to sleep.”
Willis told the boy to go back to the master bedroom and said he would join him shortly. Just minutes later, the father told investigators, he heard a gunshot and ran upstairs to find the fanny pack open and his pistol by the boy’s leg.
The boy shot himself in the face, the records state.
The father knew the toddler “had direct knowledge” of where the gun was kept and “did not secure it in a safe location.”
In an earlier news release, police said the investigation “revealed that the incident resulted from an improperly secured firearm.”
According to Georgia law, a second-degree murder charge can be filed in such cases if authorities believe they can prove a child died because of criminal negligence. That is, whether an adult was aware or should have been aware of a gun being within reach of the child and did nothing to secure it. Under the law, the alleged negligence amounts to child cruelty in the second degree, which is why the charges accompany each other if the child dies.
The combination of charges is one of the few legal avenues Georgia prosecutors can use to impose consequences for parents or caregivers who do not securely store their weapons, because the state does not have a law requiring the safe storage of firearms.
Willis was booked into the Fulton County Jail on Thursday, according to online records.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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