Lowcountry 3-year-old found a gun in a home full of people. Now, a family is mourning

A 3-year-old boy died early Saturday after he apparently shot himself in the head the night before at a mobile home in Walterboro, according to an incident report from the Colleton County Sheriff's Office.

The shooting has been ruled accidental based on findings by the county Coroner's Office and the medical examiner at Medical University of South Carolina, said Lt. Tyger Benton, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

"No charges have been filed at this time," Benton said. "... We are still looking into the circumstances of the case."

The child was identified by Coroner Richard Harvey as Aiden Martin of Walterboro.

Aiden was visiting the mobile home on Robinson Road about 11:30 p.m. Friday with his father when there was a "pop" sound from the kitchen and the child was found shot, according to Benton.

There were several other adults reported to be at the residence.

The child was driven to Colleton Medical Center in his father's vehicle, and then he was airlifted to MUSC, where he died about 6 a.m. Saturday, Benton said.

The boy's mother, Arika Williams of Walterboro, called for "justice" in a report on Live 5 News.

“There’s no way Aiden was in a house full of people, don’t nobody know what happened,” Williams told the television station.

The station also reported that Aiden is the grandson of Gloria Williams, the woman who is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to kidnapping a baby from a Jacksonville, Florida, hospital in 1998 and raising the child as her own.

In its reporting on the kidnapping case, The Florida Times Union newspaper said Arika Williams is Gloria Williams' stepdaughter.

This story was originally published May 8, 2018 at 3:03 PM with the headline "Lowcountry 3-year-old found a gun in a home full of people. Now, a family is mourning."