Puyallup toddler was fatally shot by 8-year-old cousin. Here’s who will face charges
Brian Widland had guns all around his Puyallup home, his young daughter told Pierce County investigators. Some of them were big, and some of them were small.
In fact, there was a rifle leaning against her bedroom wall the day her cousin, 2-year-old Hudson Carlisle, was fatally shot, according to charging documents filed in Pierce County Superior Court on Thursday.
Widland’s daughter, then 8, thought the weapon wasn’t real and would only shoot a pellet that “stings you,” court documents say. Investigators later found BB holes in the kitchen cabinets and red circles drawn like targets.
So Widland’s daughter said she picked up the rifle Dec. 20, 2021, during a game of “wolves” with her cousin and pulled the trigger. At first, she thought she hit the wall, according to court documents. Then she saw blood and got scared. She told investigators she didn’t mean it.
An ambulance rushed Hudson to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head, court documents say. Meanwhile, Widland gathered his guns and his daughter and fled from his home. Widland, 35, is a convicted felon and prohibited from possessing firearms, court records show.
Pierce County prosecutors charged him Thursday with both first- and second-degree manslaughter, two counts of unlawfully possessing a firearm, reckless endangerment and community endangerment.
A Pierce County Superior Court judge issued a warrant for his arrest, according to court documents. He had not been booked into Pierce County Jail as of Friday afternoon.
Widland was last sentenced to more than 2 years in prison in connection to another injury shooting in 2016, according to court documents.
In December, the adults at the shooting scene were less than cooperative, court documents show. One man initially told firefighters Hudson was injured in a fall. The man then used an expletive to tell them to go away before offering up vague details about an accidental shooting.
The same man said he picked up the boy and tried to take him to the hospital before stopping at another home, according to court documents.
Hudson’s stepfather later told investigators the man didn’t say where he was driving and wanted to concoct a plan to say the boy was struck in a drive-by shooting, court documents show. Investigators also determined Widland gave dispatchers an incorrect address for the shooting incident.
Other adults at the scene told responding deputies they were fearful of retaliation, according to court documents.
Investigators found a .22 caliber shell casing on the floor of the bedroom where the children were playing, indicating Widland’s daughter had fired from her bedroom doorway, court documents show.
The daughter told investigators in a forensic interview that the adults said not to tell anyone she fired the gun, according to court documents.
Video showed Widland and others removing the rifle from the home immediately after the shooting, court documents say.
Court documents do not say whether any other adults could face charges in connection to the shooting.
This story was originally published June 19, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
