Gun Owner Charged After Year-Long Investigation Into 3-Year-Old's Death

A year-long investigation ended on Thursday with the Oklahoma County District Attorney charging a gun owner for the death of a 3-year-old boy. 

Kirk Chance, 22, was not arrested in January after the death of Christian Lesley, 3, but he now faces one second-degree manslaughter charge.

Police were called to investigate a child's death at an apartment complex on the southwest side of the city. 

An accidental shooting that killed a once smiling, happy 3-year-old child. 

Lesley’s family spoke to News 9 days after the fatal shooting.

“Happy, very happy,” Alfreda Lesley, the grandmother, said. “Playful, smart. He was so smart.”  

The boy's grandmother was one of the first to hear the tragic news.

“Christian, he shot himself in the face from what I’m hearing,” said Lesley. “It kind of stunned. Like, no, not my grandbaby.”

The toddler and his two siblings were left in the care of their mother's partner. 

The woman told officers she woke up the morning of Jan. 15 to change diapers, and the little boy wandered to the other side of the room where 22-year-old Kirk Chance was sleeping. Chance and the woman heard a gunshot and saw the toddler shoot himself in the face.

The child's mother was in jail at the time.

“When I found out she did know,” Lesley said. “They said she was on suicidal watch. It’s her son and her girlfriend is supposed to be watching her baby. Now she gotta come home and bury her baby.”

Chance told police he freaked out after the accidental shooting, took the gun, and left the apartment. 

According to court documents, Chance's mother and brother urged him to turn himself in and talk to police. 

Chance later told investigators he put the loaded gun on the floor, under the bed where he was sleeping.

Chance turned the gun over to investigators when he turned himself in. He is currently not in jail.