Timothy Moore, Libby, Montana dad arrested after 3 year old son shoots self dead with father’s ‘loaded’ gun left in living room after parent went outside to have a cigarette.
A Montana man has been arrested after his 3 year old son shot himself dead after coming across his father’s loaded gun at the family home.
Timothy Moore of Libby, who was found sitting outside the family house in an ‘altered’ state confessed to responding cops that he had left his loaded handgun on the living room couch while he went outside to smoke, only for his 3-year-old son to pick up the weapon and shoot himself in the face.
Lincoln County Sheriff Darren Short told KRTV that deputies were called to the home just after 10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 27, where upon they found the 24-year-old father sitting in the road outside.
Montana dad faces negligent homicide charge after toddler son shoots self dead with parent’s loaded gun
A deputy said Moore appeared to be in an ‘altered mental state’ and asked the deputy ‘to shoot him’ when asked if he was involved in the incident.
Moore told the deputy he’d left the loaded gun on the couch while he went outside. Once outside, he heard a popping sound and ran back in to find his toddler son holding the weapon with a gunshot wound to the head. The child was taken to Cabinet Peaks Medical Center, where he lated died.
Deputies found a .22 caliber handgun and two magazines for the weapon in Moore’s pants pocket. The deputies also saw ‘track’ marks on his arm that appeared consistent with intravenous drug use and found paraphernalia consistent with drug use in the house.
Following his arrest, Tim Moore faced a charge of negligent homicide in the shooting death of his 3 year old son, NBC Montana reported.
The child’s body is being sent to the Montana State Crime Lab in Missoula for an autopsy and for further investigation.
Moore is being held in the Lincoln County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond and has a preliminary hearing set for June 11.
