Man sought in death of Wash. 4-year-old surrenders
Jul 22, 2013, 11:54 PM
SEATTLE (AP) – A convicted felon who was sought by law enforcement agencies in Washington state a day after 4-year-old boy died of a gunshot wound at his small town home surrendered Monday.
An autopsy also revealed the boy died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a Sedro-Woolley home, as officers originally believed.
Trevor Braymiller called authorities in Sedro-Woolley on Monday afternoon to arrange his surrender, police Chief Doug Wood said.
“We’re very pleased he’s in custody,” Wood said. “The community can relax a little bit, knowing that he’s in custody. Now we have to grapple with the tragedy that occurred in the community.”
Located about 70 miles north of Seattle, Sedro-Woolley rests on the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. More than 10,000 people live there.
People at the house indicated the boy shot himself, but investigators suspected a homicide and Braymiller fled. The 4-year-old was the son of Braymiller’s girlfriend.
Police were told he went to a nearby church.
A friend told police that he had given Braymiller a ride to the Big Lake community, about 5 miles south of Sedro-Woolley. The friend went to police after learning the child was dead.
Wood didn’t know where Braymiller spent the night.
Braymiller, a felon convicted of selling drugs, is not supposed to have a gun, police said. The house is well known to police, and officers conducted a drug raid there in 2011. Police have seized firearms from Braymiller in the past.
No one in the house saw the shooting. Also in the house at the time was the boy’s mother, a couple, another young man and a girl about 2 years old who was parented by the mother and Braymiller.
The gun they believe was used in the shooting was found Sunday by a Washington State Patrol explosives-sniffing dog under the stairs of a church about a half-block from the house where the child was shot.
Wood said detectives were interviewing Braymiller.
“It’s too early to know what happened there,” Wood said. “We’re piecing it together.”
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