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Young boy’s death called ‘horrific tragedy’ by Nitro police chief

NITRO, W.Va. — Police Chief Bobby Eggleton says sometimes “bad things happen to good people.”

Bobby Eggleton

The longtime lawman was searching for words Thursday morning to explain an accidental shooting just a few hours before at a house on Main Avenue in Nitro that resulted in a three-year-old boy losing his life.

“This is just a tragedy. At this point right now in our investigation it’s nothing more than a tragedy,” Eggleton said.

The call came in at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday that the little boy had accidentally fired his father’s gun. He had critical wounds to his face.

“The father laid the firearm down, just seconds later, the kid picks the gun up, takes a couple steps and it goes off,” Eggleton said.

All indications are the father has a history of being careful with guns, making sure they are in a secure location.

“This is not a case of someone being totally careless,” Eggleton said. “This is just a horrific, horrific incident.”

Nitro policemen and firefighters arrived on the scene just a few minutes after the call came in. Eggleton said he’s proud how they handled themselves in a very difficult situation.

“Compassion means the world,” he said. “We did a soft interview with the father at the hospital. We spent time with the family. We cleaned up the scene so the families don’t have to come back and see this. The departments here did a fabulous job.”

Eggleton is also concerned about his officers. He said a stress debriefing is scheduled next week with professionals that the first officers on the scene will take part in.

“I have an officer who was first on the scene that has a 4-year-old son approximately the same size as this victim. I have another officer that’s been an officer for less than two years, he’s never seen anything like that,” Eggleton said. “It’s very traumatic to people like that.”

Eggleton said his thoughts also go back to the family.

“What more can you do to a parent? What more can you do? This family will have to live with this for the rest of their lives,” he said.





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