A child’s birthday in Gaston, South Carolina, ended in tragedy on April 12, 2014, when seven-year-old Juliet Lynch was struck and killed by a single gunshot while attending the party. According to reports, a five-year-old boy searching for a toy found a loaded FEG 7.62mm assault rifle in a car trunk and accidentally fired it. Shrapnel from the shot also injured another five-year-old boy.

Investigators determined the rifle did not belong to the five-year-old’s mother but to her boyfriend, who was at the party. He was a convicted felon and therefore legally prohibited from possessing firearms; that fact brought the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into the matter and federal charges for being a felon in possession of a firearm were brought. The shooting itself was described as accidental, while the firearm’s illegal possession led to legal accountability in the federal system.

Did anyone attend that party or have information about how the rifle came to be left in the trunk?