Man scrambles to hide gun after toddler finds it in SUV and kills himself, feds say
A Michigan man has been sentenced after authorities say a 2-year-old boy found a gun in his SUV and fatally shot himself.
Avis Damone Coward, 44, of Lansing, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison “for being a felon in possession of firearms,” according to an Oct. 2 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan.
“This two-year-old child is dead because Avis Coward flouted the law,” U.S. Attorney Mark Totten said. “And then – as if that was not enough – Coward attempted to hide his crime.”
Coward previously pleaded guilty to illegally owning two guns, authorities said.
McClatchy News reached out to Coward’s attorney Oct. 3 for comment but did not immediately hear back.
October 2023 shooting death
On Oct. 24, 2023, Coward went into a Lansing gas station, leaving the 2-year-old boy and his mother in the SUV, according to the probable cause statement.
Minutes later, surveillance video from the gas station shows a bullet hole appear in the front passenger window before the woman gets out holding the toddler who was covered in blood, court records show.
The boy’s mother told police “she was on the phone and not paying attention when she heard an ‘explosion’,” according to court records.
As she got out of the SUV, a gun fell to the ground, authorities said referencing surveillance video.
While a bystander brought the toddler inside to control the bleeding, surveillance footage shows Coward pick up the gun, then punch out the window with the bullet hole, “in his first effort to destroy evidence” before driving away, officials said.
The child died from his injury, authorities said.
Destruction of evidence
Authorities arrested Coward later that day but did not find the SUV, court records show.
Coward made several calls from jail, asking his contacts to find his “phones,” which authorities determined was a code word for guns, according to court records.
“Do that right now, like right now, right now,” Coward said in one of the phone calls, documents show.
In the days following the boy’s death, authorities found the barrel of the Springfield Armory pistol believed to have been used in the fatal shooting hidden in the wall of a Lansing house, placed there by one of Coward’s contacts, according to court records.
Authorities said they believe the pistol was “disassembled and separated to prevent ballistic comparison” that could connect it to the shooting.
Officials said the rest of the gun, which Coward’s contact told police he sold off, has not been recovered.
Police also found the SUV days later “burned-out and abandoned in a field,” officials said.
“This tragedy occurred because an individual who was prohibited from owning a firearm illegally possessed one,” Lansing Police Department Chief Rob Backus said.
This story was originally published October 3, 2024 at 12:04 PM with the headline "Man scrambles to hide gun after toddler finds it in SUV and kills himself, feds say."
