Four-year-old Eric James Cole died on August 5, 2017, after finding a handgun in an upstairs room at a babysitter’s home in Crown Point, Indiana. The firearm was in a case under a bed; Eric opened the case, handled the gun and it discharged once. He was taken to Franciscan Health Crown Point and died shortly after noon. The Lake County Sheriff’s Department opened an investigation and initially treated the shooting as accidental before turning the matter over to the Lake County prosecutor’s office for review.

Eric’s parents are Kandice and Ronald Eric Cole Jr. The babysitter that day was Brett A. Beatty, a McDonald’s manager where Eric’s mother worked. Beatty had left the children in the care of his girlfriend without telling her the .40-caliber handgun was unsecured under the bed. In April 2021, Beatty pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and criminal recklessness and was sentenced to five years, with two years in prison, two years in community corrections and one year of probation.