'Father Figure' Flees After Boy, 4, Shot Dead

A 4-year-old boy was fatally shot in Washington state yesterday, and now the convicted drug dealer he lived with is on the run. Sedro-Woolley police say convicted felon Trevor Braymiller, 25, is armed and dangerous, and the Seattle Times reports that he is a suspect in the killing. He is not believed to be the little boy's father, but investigators think he was "a father figure," KOMO News reports; KIRO 7 reports that Braymiller is dating the boy's mother. Initially, it was reported that the boy shot himself, but a medical examiner has since concluded he did not, and his death is being treated as a homicide. The gun that killed him was found at a church near the house.

But friends insist Braymiller never would have hurt the child and is likely devastated over what happened; they think he took off, with the weapon in question, simply because he was not supposed to possess a gun (he had two, one friend says). "He said he went outside in the garage to smoke a cigarette and he heard a boom," one friend says. "And went back in the house and his son wasn't moving." Another friend says he was sleeping at the house when the incident happened: "What woke me up was a gunshot and then I heard everybody frantically yelling." The little boy's mother and another child were also in the house at the time, but did not see the shooting. (More shooting stories.)