Michigan Man Charged After Toddler's Fatal Self-Inflicted Gunshot

The accused allegedly destroyed evidence by burning the vehicle involved in the incident.

A Michigan man, Avis Damone Coward, has been charged with illegally possessing the handgun that a 2-year-old used to fatally shoot himself in a car, as well as with the subsequent burning of the vehicle, federal prosecutors said.
The child shot himself while the vehicle he was in was parked at a Lansing gas station on Oct. 24, the prosecutor’s office said.
Coward handed off the child to someone else who took the boy to the gas station, then he picked up his gun, used his fist to break the window where the bullet had exited and drove away, the office said.
The sport-utility vehicle was later found torched in a field. Coward pleaded not guilty to all three counts.
The child’s mother, 26-year-old Emma Huver, is also charged federally with being a felon in possession of a firearm, federal prosecutors said. Another woman, Gina Schieberl, 26, is also charged federally with conspiracy to tamper with evidence and tampering with evidence.