Kedrick Bowman, 17, was shot in the head inside a family home on Cotton Place in southwest Decatur in the predawn hours of Monday, January 20, 2014. He was transported to Huntsville Hospital in critical condition and died later that day. Initial reports identified the location as a family residence and investigators interviewed people who had been present as they tried to reconstruct the moments before the gun fired.

Police publicly described the shooting as accidental based on the account given by those at the scene. The family said Kedrick’s stepmother, Cynthia Bowman, was holding a .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol that discharged without the trigger being pulled; investigators were told the gun had shown prior mechanical trouble. Authorities indicated they did not plan to file charges at that time and no arrests were announced.

What details about that morning or the weapon’s history might help explain how a single fatal shot was fired inside a home?