LANSING, Mich. – A 26-year-old woman from Lansing has pleaded guilty after her 2-year-old son was fatally shot in October.
The child reportedly got ahold of a gun and shot himself outside a Lansing gas station on Oct. 24, 2023.
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According to authorities, Emma Huver, her son and 44-year-old Avis Coward drove up to the gas station, where Coward went inside. While inside, surveillance video of the parking lot captured a bullet hole appear in the passenger window before Huver exited the car with her son, who was bleeding. As she got out of the car, a handgun fell to the ground.
According to court documents, Huver told police her son climbed into the front seat after Coward exited the vehicle and that she was on her phone when the child shot himself in the head.
Huver and the child entered the gas station, where a Good Samaritan attempted to control the bleeding before emergency medical crews arrived.
The video showed Coward returning to the car, picking the gun up off the ground, placing it in the vehicle, and breaking the window that had the bullet hole before driving away.
The boy died the next day.
Huver faced multiple charges -- including manslaughter and child abuse -- before pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm on Monday, April 29.
Huver is expected to be sentenced Sept. 16. She faces potentially 15 years in prison.
She’s not the only one facing jail time in connection with the boy’s death.
Coward was arrested on the day of the shooting. Authorities said he made several calls from jail, including to a man who offered to “put away” anything Coward needed. Coward is accused of instructing a man and a woman to retrieve and dispose of evidence during these phone calls.
After hearing the phone calls, police said they identified the man, arrested him and recovered a 9mm handgun from his vehicle on Oct. 31. Court documents said the man told police he found two guns in the culvert where Coward directed him. The second gun was reportedly disassembled and had its parts hidden and sold. Police found the barrel of the second gun hidden in a wall of a Lansing home.
The burned-out remains of the vehicle the boy was shot in were found the same day abandoned in a field in Lansing.
Coward and Gina Schieberl were charged with conspiracy to tamper with evidence and tampering with evidence. Coward was also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Authorities are pushing the importance of gun locks as a safety precaution that people can get for free from most law enforcement offices.