Tyler M. Taffe was a 12-year-old seventh grader at Millwood Arts Academy in Edmond, Oklahoma, remembered as a bubbly kid who played middle school football and was loved by friends and teachers. In the pre-dawn hours of September 28, 2024, a 911 call from his mother, Kershena Cotton, brought officers to a home on Abeline Avenue. Officers arrived about 2:50 a.m. and found Tyler in a bedroom with a gunshot wound. CPR was performed but he was pronounced dead at the scene. A purple and silver Taurus 9mm pistol was found in the room.

Investigators reported the handgun belonged to Cotton and that she had taken her 18-year-old son, Logan Walker, and others to a gun range on September 10. Cotton told police she believed no ammunition was brought back and said she instructed Walker to lock the firearm in her safe. Walker later told investigators he had kept ammunition from the range, loaded a magazine at home, and left the loaded pistol on his bedside table for weeks before the shooting. Both Cotton and Walker were charged with felony child neglect for failing to secure the firearm in a home with a child. The school district described the event as a gun accident and began promoting gun safety and offering gun locks to parents.

Does anyone have information about the weeks before September 28 that could clarify how the firearm came to be left accessible?