Tracing a ‘stolen’ gun that killed a 6-year-old boy
CANTON — The gun used to kill 6-year-old Ohio boy last year might have been stolen, and it remains unclear how the weapon ended up in the hands of two young children, according to police records.
The Canton Repository examined more than 250 pages of police documents obtained through a public records request to learn more about the history of the gun, a Ruger 380 pistol.
The family of the slain Canton boy, King Pleasant, has complained about a lack of information being shared about the weapon.
“They haven’t told us anything about the gun,” Monique Elder, the victim’s grandmother, said during a protest last week. “Who the gun belongs to, we don’t know.”
King was shot and killed Sept. 14 behind his neighbor’s home on 19th Street NW by an 11-year-old boy while playing, according to police. He later died at Cleveland Clinic Mercy Hospital and the other boy, whom the newspaper hasn’t identified by name because of his age, was charged with reckless homicide.
The charge was dropped earlier this year by Stark County Family Court Judge David Nist, after the juvenile, who is now 12 years old, was found mentally incompetent to stand trial. That decision has prompted protests by King’s family who say there hasn’t been justice in the case.
King Pleasant
Evidence photos document the Ruger 380 pistol used in King Pleasant’s shooting death.
The gun was reportedly kept in one of King Pleasant’s shoe boxes. Pleasant allegedly placed the box containing the gun inside a neighbor’s garage the day of the shooting.
Who owned the gun?
Police documents trace the history of the gun.
The weapon’s original owner purchased the gun in August 2015 from the now-closed Gander Mountain in Jackson Township. The weapon later would be sold to and presumed stolen from a Perry Township man’s work truck sometime around July 2019.
How the gun ended up on 19th Street NW in Canton remains a mystery.
The firearm’s original owner, a Canton man, told police detectives he’d actually won the firearm while working at Gander Mountain.
Needing cash, the man reached out to a gun shop owner at the time, who purchased the firearm.
Detectives spoke with the former gun shop owner next. The Perry Township man, who confirmed buying the weapon, told police he believed the firearm was stolen from his work truck around July 2019 during a string of car break-ins both at work and in his neighborhood, a police interview revealed.
The firearm never was reported stolen to police, the gun owner admitted to detectives.
How did the gun end up in King Pleasant’s shoebox?
Canton police “continue to investigate how the weapon came to be in the children’s possession,” said Lt. Dennis Garren, public information officer for the Canton Police Department.
In a taped interview with Canton police detectives, the 11-year-old suspect alleged he first saw the firearm when King brought it out of his home in a shoebox after asking the suspect if he wanted to play Fortnite, an online video game, for real.
King reportedly placed the shoebox containing the gun inside a neighbor’s garage, near a lawnmower. The two boys looked over the weapon then left it in the garage and went to play hide-and-seek.
Later that evening, the suspect reported to police they went back to the garage to play with the firearm. King reportedly opened the shoebox and took out the gun. He put it down and the suspect admittedly picked it back up to see how heavy it was, according to police records. That’s when the gun went off, the suspect said.
After interviewing the juvenile suspect, Canton police said they located the Ruger 380 firearm and a Kyrie Irving basketball shoe box, child size 13. Both items were tagged and logged as evidence.
A child-sized fingerprint was located inside the shoebox and on the gun magazine. The two items were submitted to the Ohio Bureau of Investigation crime lab for analysis. BCI matched the shoebox fingerprint and DNA sample from the gun magazine back to the victim, BCI records show.
King’s mother confirmed the shoebox belonged to her son, and that his grandmother had bought the shoes for him, according to police records. The shoes were located inside King’s home, in a closet, police records revealed.
No adults have been charged regarding the firearm
After dismissing the charge of reckless homicide, Judge Nist noted “the person or persons who allowed a very young child or children access to a loaded, unsecured deadly weapon is what put all of this in motion. Without that individual, none of this could have occurred. It is truly a crime that individual escaped completely unscathed thus far.”
The juvenile suspect’s father echoed the judge’s concerns.
“What part do adults play in this, allowing them to access a loaded gun?” the boy’s father said. “If the kids didn’t have access to the gun, none of this would have happened.” When asked about the origin of the weapon and how it got into the children’s hands, King’s family attorney, Laura Mills, stated “the family is unaware how the suspect got ahold of the gun.”
“We hope that police continue to do a full investigation into this matter, and do not simply rely on the defendant’s statement when he’s been deemed incompetent to stand trial at this time,” Mills said.
Not reporting a stolen weapon is a criminal offense
Ohio Revised Code requires people to report the loss or theft of any firearm.
Whoever violates this section is guilty of unlawful transactions in weapons, a fourth-degree misdemeanor.
The man who told police the firearm used in King’s shooting was stolen has not been charged. He did not respond to a request for comment from the Repository.
Last month, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced the creation of the Ohio Stolen Gun Portal, a searchable website designed to increase public safety by helping to identify and recover stolen firearms.
“With our new portal, when buying a used firearm, private citizens and firearms dealers can instantly check to see whether a gun was previously reported as stolen,” Yost said.