A convicted felon has been charged with illegally possessing the gun a toddler used to kill himself last month.

The US Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, Mark Totten, said that Avis Coward pulled into a gas station in Lansing on October 24 and went inside, leaving the 2-year-old child and his mother in the vehicle.

“Surveillance video showed that a minute later, a bullet hole appeared in the car window,” the US Attorney’s Office said. “The mother got out of the car holding her child, who had blood on his face from a gunshot wound. As she did so, Coward’s gun fell out of the car. The child later died from his injuries.”

Coward returned to the vehicle, picked up the gun and put it back inside, then used his hand to smash the passenger side window, which had the bullet hole, according to the complaint. Coward got back into the vehicle and drove away.

The child’s mother later told police she had been on the phone when her son climbed into the front seat, then she heard the “explosion” from the gun blast.

Complaint by kc wildmoon on Scribd

“Death of child by gunfire is a story that should never be written,” said Totten. “Yet beginning in 2022, and for the first time ever, gun violence has become the number one cause of death for kids in America. As this swelling epidemic reaches our most innocent, my office will use every resource available to secure full accountability and prevent future harm.”

Police found Coward the next day, but he was no longer with the SUV he had been driving the day before. He was wearing different clothing, but officers found glass shards on his pants leg.

According to the complaint, Coward made several phone calls from jail, telling the people he called to “put away” anything he needed. He specifically asked a man and a woman to find his “phone” in “one of those rain troughs” near a fence. Several phone calls related to “phones,” which police later determined was code for guns.

They located the man Coward called and arrested him on October 31, recovering a Smith & Wesson pistonl, a BB gun, and five grams of methamphetamine from his car. The man told police he found the pistol and another handgun in the spot by the fence — not phones. He told police he had disassembled the other gun and hidden the barrel in a house, where police found it with a search warrant.

Police believe that was the gun the toddler used to shot himself. The man told police he had sold the other parts of the gun.

Later that day, investigators found the SUV in field in Lansing, “heavily damaged by fire.”

Coward has not been charged in relation to the child’s death.

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[Featured image: Left, Avis Coward/Ingham County Sheriff’s Office. Upper right, Gun falls out as child’s mother gets out of SUV, lower right, Coward smashes window/US Department of Justice]