A family gathering in Cheltenham, Maryland, ended in tragedy on the evening of Saturday, August 23, 2008, when 12-year-old Glenn C. Ellis, a Germantown resident and student at Earle B. Wood Middle School, was fatally shot. Glenn and two boys went to an upstairs room with a computer and found a shotgun. While the children were handling the firearm, it discharged at about 9:45 p.m., striking Glenn in the head. She was transported to a nearby hospital and died within hours.

Prince George’s County Police Homicide Unit investigated and quickly described the shooting as likely accidental. The person who fired the weapon was identified as a 14-year-old male relative; police questioned him, the other boys who were visiting from Fort Bragg, and others who were at the house.

Did anyone at the gathering or in the family know details about how the shotgun came to be left loaded and accessible?