On October 9, 2022, two-year-old Sekani Brunson was killed in DeKalb County, Georgia, after a gun that had been kept under his father’s pillow discharged and struck the child in the head while the boy was sleeping in bed with his father, 23-year-old Tyquontae Brunson. According to the father’s account to police, he did not hear the shot and was awakened by his son’s labored breathing; he drove the child in his work van to a local hospital, where emergency care at Emory Decatur Hospital could not save the toddler.

Investigators arrested Tyquontae Brunson and charged him with second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children. In August 2024 a grand jury indicted him on those charges. The District Attorney’s office noted the case in the context of child fatalities tied to unsecured firearms.

If anyone has information about the circumstances that night or about firearm storage in that household, please share what you know.