Trevor Malik Hargrave was 20 and stationed at Fort Sill when he was fatally shot in the early morning hours of a December Saturday in Lawton, Oklahoma. He had been with fellow soldiers at an apartment complex; the group had been drinking when one soldier began handling a shotgun and the firearm discharged, striking Hargrave.

Lawton police stopped a car leaving the scene and found a wounded Hargrave inside with two other men who were trying to rush him to a hospital. Hargrave died of the gunshot wound. Authorities described the incident as an apparent accidental shooting. A fellow soldier who had been at the apartment was arrested and charged with first-degree manslaughter and possession of a firearm while intoxicated.

What details about that night or the people present might help explain how a shotgun was being handled in that situation?