There are many tragic stories — and this is one of the more heartbreaking oness. When Justin Stanfield Thomas, 35, of Phoenix visited his former roommate in Prescott Valley, Ariz., with his son, his son found a gun, picked it up, went to show it to his dad — and it went off and killed his father. And that’s just the first part of the tragedy:
An Army Special Forces veteran who served in the Iraq War was accidentally shot and killed by his 4-year-old son in northern Arizona, police said.
Justin Stanfield Thomas took his son to visit a friend in Prescott Valley when the boy found a gun in the living room and accidentally shot his father in the chest, azfamily.com reported.
“Apparently when Justin and his little boy showed up, within minutes, the little boy found the gun and said, ‘Hey, daddy, what’s this?’ and it went off,” said Jeremy Hartt, a neighbor and friend. “He didn’t know what was going on; he was just a happy little boy.”
Thomas was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead, KSAZ-TV reported.
And here’s the second part of the tragedy:
A 4-year-old boy who accidentally shot and killed his father still doesn’t understand what happened to his dad and is looking for his friend and playmate, the man’s mother said.
The accident occurred Friday when Justin Stanfield Thomas, 35, of Phoenix was visiting his former roommate in Prescott Valley, Ariz., with his son, his family said.
Thomas’ 4-year-old son, who is currently at home with his mother in Phoenix, still does not understand what happened to his father.
“He doesn’t know that his father is gone,” the boy’s grandmother, Marilyn Andreatta, told ABC News. “He’s still waiting to play with him some more.”
The ripples of tears from this tragedy will be felt for many years to come.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.