On January 5, 2023, 16-year-old Craig Andre Curtis Jr. died in Raleigh, North Carolina, after an accidental shooting involving an AR-15 at his mother’s home on Harmony Court in the Nottingham Woods neighborhood. Raleigh police treated the death as a homicide and later apprehended a male juvenile who was charged by juvenile petition with involuntary manslaughter; that juvenile was released to home monitoring.

Craig Jr. was a student at Enloe High School and had recently turned 16. Family remembered him as joyful and quick to laugh; more than 50 family and friends gathered at Biltmore Hills Park for a balloon release in his honor, during which his sisters released green, silver, and white balloons and shouted Long live Craig. His father, Craig Curtis Sr., spoke publicly about his grief and called for action to prevent teen access to firearms and reduce gun violence.

Are there any readers who knew Craig Jr. or who can share information about how the rifle came to be accessible to a teenager?