Boy’s gun death believed accidental

BRIDGEPORT, Wash. – An 11-year-old boy killed in what appears to be an accidental shooting may have been trying to unload a gun, Douglas County authorities say.

Efrain Hernandez Ortiz died at Okanogan-Douglas District Hospital in Brewster on Wednesday after he was shot with a .357-caliber Magnum handgun.

Both of the boy’s parents were apparently working when the shooting happened, said Robbin Wagg, Douglas County’s chief criminal deputy.

“None of the evidence would support this was anything other than an accident,” Wagg said. An autopsy and evidence sent to the State Patrol crime lab will help determine exactly what happened, he said.

Investigators found live rounds in the area, leading them to believe Efrain may have been trying to unload the handgun, Wagg said.

Julie Reynolds, a first-grade teacher in this Columbia River town about 50 miles northeast of Wenatchee, said she was in the post office Wednesday afternoon when a boy came in yelling that there had been a shooting.

Reynolds hopped in her car and followed the boy on his bicycle to the Hernandez home and recognized Efrain and his 10-year-old brother, who were both in the yard.