A boy, 7, was killed in a gun store parking lot in western Pennsylvania by his father in an unfortunate accident as the father entered his truck and a bullet accidently fired, according to The Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
The boy was Craig Allen Loughrey, who was shot in the chest by his father, Joseph V. Loughrey, 44, after he went into the Mercer County gun store, according to the report. The young boy died at the scene of the crime.
Investigators said Loughrey told them he didn't realize there was a bullet still in the chamber. "This happens all too often where people think the gun was empty," Lt. Eric Hermick told The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
The father was said to be "cooperative and distraught." He had gone with his son into the gun store to sell two guns, but the owner of the store told him they do not buy guns. Upon returning to the car, the father put the boy in the passenger seat and loaded the rifle into the truck when it accidentally fired off.
The shooting is being investigated as an accident, although Loughrey could face charges, including manslaughter and negligence, Hermick told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
"I know that little kid was everything to him," Mark McLaughlin of Fredonia, a friend and co-worker of Loughrey's at Superior Well Services in Fredonia, told the Tribune-Review.
