Authorities in Maine say an 8-year-old boy found dead inside his Oakland home Tuesday night died from a gunshot wound to the head.
State police said Parker Stevens was handling his father's 12 gauge shotgun inside a second floor closet of the family's Church Street home when the gun somehow fired.
Stevens was found dead by his mother, Sara, at about 6 p.m.
Police said Sara Stevens and the family's three other children were on the first floor of the home and did not hear the gunshot.
Steven's father, Wade, was not home at the time.
Detectives said the shotgun had eight shells in the gun's magazine tube and Stevens "apparently racked one of those shells into the chamber before he fired the gun."
Authorities said the boy was going into the fourth grade this fall at the William’s Elementary School in Oakland.
