On November 15, 2015, 12-year-old Marlin Banks Jr. was at his home on North Richland Avenue in York, Pennsylvania, when he sustained a single, fatal gunshot wound. Emergency responders took him to York Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at approximately 8:12 a.m. An autopsy confirmed the cause of death.

The York City Police and the York County Coroner’s Office determined the shooting was accidental. Reports state Marlin had been handling a handgun when it discharged; the firearm was reported to belong to his older brother, Dontae Lambert Hairston.

Marlin was a seventh-grade student at Ferguson Elementary School. If anyone has information about what happened that morning or the circumstances that led to Marlin handling the gun, please come forward.