Seven-year-old Alaska Native Stanley Custer died after an accidental shooting in Shungnak, Alaska, on March 4, 2015. Children playing unsupervised inside a home found a pistol they thought was a toy; during play a child squeezed the trigger and a single bullet struck Stanley in the head. Adults rushed him to the village clinic and summoned a medevac, but he was pronounced dead at 12:06 a.m. before transport could occur. Troopers described the shooting as unintentional and emphasized safe firearm storage. Reporting at the time placed two adults and two other children in the home; the father was not home and authorities declined to identify him publicly. Contemporaneous coverage noted an ongoing investigation but no public announcements of arrests or criminal charges tied to the death.

Stanley’s loss reverberated through a small village where everyone knew one another. The factual record centers on a child’s access to a loaded, privately owned pistol and the fatal result. If anyone knew Stanley, his family, or saw something the investigation might have missed, please share what is known.