The Lancaster County District Attorney announced today that the East Lampeter Township father who accidentally shot and killed his 2 month old daughter on Christmas Eve will face charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, and endangering the welfare of a child.
While Stedman says this was clearly a case of unintentional harm — no punishment will ever match the father’s grief.
Investigators say Scott Davis was “messing around” with the 9 millimeter handgun when he pulled the trigger, thinking it was not loaded.
Just one week before Scott Davis and his wife had planned to have a public wedding party to celebrate the vows they shared in the summer, the unthinkable happened.
“That day he came home and his wife and his father in law were actually leaving to get tuxedos for the ceremony,” says Lancaster County District Attorney, Craig Stedman.
Stedman says nobody except David and his daughter Kestyn were home that day.
He says Davis sat down on his couch, and began messing with the 9 millimeter handgun he had bought a few weeks earlier, by taking the magazine loaded with bullets in and out and pulling the slide back and forth — and then he pulled the trigger.
“From the way he described it he was not paying attention to where it was pointed because he did not believe there was a bullet in the chamber,” says Stedman.
Stedman says the coincidence of the situation will stay with him forever.
“Had he been just been an inch or two moved from where the gun was pointed we’d have a different outcome, had be been left handed than right handed it would’ve pointed the other way,” says Stedman.
Jeff Conrad, the attorney for Scott Davis, says his client will plead guilty to the charges.
“The depth of his dispair is unfathomable. He has begged god to turn back the hands of time so he could prevent this tragedy, but the hands of time do not move backward,” says Conrad.
Stedman says Kestyn’s damage was so extensive that surgeons couldn’t save her even if they had been on scene when the shot was fired.
Now, Craig Stedman says he wants gun owners to realize the devastation in this case and take the necessary educational steps to make sure this never happens again.
He says the death of the 2 month old was “entirely preventable” had the father taken the proper gun safety measures.
He’s asking for anyone who owns a gun to take a class provided by law enforcement.
And he says if y0u don’t have the funds to afford the class, his office will pay for it.
Stedman believes this is an issue all political sides can agree on.
“No matter where you fall on the spectrum of firearms, I think we can all unite and we can all agree and we can make a difference and that’s in training and education and that will actually save lives,” says Stedman.