Att.:
TOMS RIVER — Sources tell Courier-Post owner Gannett that Brandon Holt, the 6-year-old boy shot by a 4-year-old neighbor Monday evening in Toms River has died at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune.
Ronald Holt said he and his wife Christine have two older children and Brandon is the youngest in the family.
New York Times:
The police said the two children were near the 4-year-old’s house on McCormick Drive in Toms River, N.J., when the shooting occurred around 6:45 p.m. Monday.
At some point, the 4-year-old went into the house, retrieved a .22-caliber rifle and came back outside, said Michael G. Mastronardy, the chief of the Toms River Police Department. A shot went off and hit the 6-year-old, Brandon Holt, in the head. Brandon was taken to Jersey Shore Medical Center, where he died on Tuesday afternoon.
It was not clear whether the child fired the gun intentionally, or whether it went off by accident, Chief Mastronardy said in a phone interview. He added that the parents of the younger boy were nearby at the time, though he could not say whether they knew the child had taken the gun. The identity of the 4-year-old is being withheld, he said.
As of Tuesday evening, no charges had been filed.
