Michigan 11-Year-old Dead - Charges Expected

Tyler Dunn


M Live

An initial investigation of a shooting that killed a Marlette Elementary School student nearly is complete, and the case will be forwarded to the Sanilac County Prosecutor's Office for review, likely by early next week, Sanilac County Sheriff Garry Biniecki reports. 

"When we forward this to the prosecutor, it will be up to him to determine what charges come out of this," the sheriff said, adding he anticipates there will be charges. 

The 11-year-old victim has been identified as Tyler Dunn of Marlette, according to Marlette Interim Superintendent Alan Broughton. 

Dunn was at a sleepover Saturday, Nov. 23 when the fatal shooting happened, Biniecki said.  

No adults were home at the time, he said.

The initial investigation showed that two boys were at the residence alone, and one boy was showing the other boy a lever-action .30-30 older model rifle when the shooting happened.

"They do not have an updated safety feature," the sheriff said about the rifle. "It's a ratchet lever-action, when the hammer comes back, it's cocked and ready to fire.

Investigators don't believe the gun was locked up at the home and that the shooting was accidental, the sheriff said.

"It's tragic. Two lives were affected. One boy won't be with us, and one will have to deal with this for the rest of his life."

After the shooting, Biniecki offered a few gun safety tips for residents:

"Everyone needs to remember that every gun is loaded," the sheriff said. "Even if it's unloaded, point it in a safe direction, and no one will ever be shot unless it's intentional."

Trigger locks and similar devices are available to disable firearms from firing, he said, advising gun owners to keep safety locks on guns or to keep them in a locked safe. Firearms should be locked and stored in a separate location from a locked ammo box, he said.

"You can't have the two together, and keeping them locked is key," he said.

"Some of it comes to us," he added, "we've got to take responsibility for our kids and help them do it right. I believe if parental supervision would've been there, maybe it wouldn't have happened." 

You see, what they're going to do, probably, is charge the irresponsible idiot who left these kids alone with access to a gun. But I doubt very seriously if that's the very first gun offense committed by this guy. He probably could have been disarmed long ago BEFORE a kid got killed.  Reckless gun owners who leave 11-year-olds alone with guns are the same guys who break other safety and common sense rules. One-strike-you're-out is what we need to cut down on these tragic incidents, and we need it before something this drastic happens.