NEWAYGO COUNTY, Mich. — The father of a 5-year-old shot and killed by a gun found in his grandparents' house says charges are coming in connection to the incident.
Braxton Marvin Scott Dykstra, 5, was at his grandparents' home in the area of West 68th Street and Bingham Avenue in Garfield Township on April 1, Michigan State Police say.
Investigators say Braxton and a relative, a 6-year-old boy, found a gun inside their grandparents' bedroom. When the 6-year-old boy was holding the gun, it fired and hit Braxton.
Michigan State Police were called to the scene around 3:25 p.m. A police report obtained by 13 ON YOUR SIDE through a Freedom of Information Act Request states that once inside, troopers found a child dead from a gunshot wound in one of the bedrooms.
"As of right now, it only sounds like grandpa and grandma are gonna get [charged]," said Domynic Dykstra, the boy's father.
Domynic says the charges are not enough and feels like the others should be held responsible, too. He also hopes to get more safe storage laws passed in the future, honoring his son's legacy, and to get his instructor license to teach youth about gun safety.
"It's obviously a parent's worst nightmare," he said Friday. "I'm hoping that we can actually get justice for my son."
He said after a meeting Friday morning with the Newaygo County Prosecutor's Office, charges could come as soon as next week.
Domynic says the Prosecutor's Office tells him the pair will be charged under the safe storage law that went into effect in Michigan on February 13. The law requires gun owners to keep unattended weapons unloaded and locked in a locked box or container if it is reasonably known that a minor is likely to be present on the premises.
Despite multiple phone calls and a visit to the Prosecutor's Office on Friday, 13 ON YOUR SIDE has not been able to confirm pending charges with officials.
"If you have a safe, obviously, that's the ideal thing, throw it in a safe and call it a day. My main goal right now is to obviously stop this from happening again. I have gone through so much pain that I don't want anybody else to go through," said Domynic.
On the day of the shooting, a trooper asked a person on the scene, whose name was redacted in court documents, to show them the firearm. The person pointed it out on the kitchen countertop. The trooper opened the chamber of the gun to find no cartridges. The person on scene told the trooper the gun was not loaded and the other guns in the home were locked away.
"I didn't even know where he got that bullet from," the person told the trooper on April 1.
Multiple people interviewed by police said that the gun was never loaded unless it was going to be used.
"[The gun] is never loaded, I know it was never loaded, and I keep [the gun] on safety," said an unidentified man on scene in another interview.
That same man told police that the last time he used the firearm was two months ago to shoot a rabid raccoon in the front yard. He told police he loaded the firearm with just one shell, shot the raccoon, racked the empty shell out of the firearm, put the firearm back on safety and put it back in the corner. He told police he has kept the firearm in that same spot unloaded, with the slide open and safety on for the past 10 years.
He also told police he keeps ammo for the firearm all over the house, but said he had never taught any of the children how to operate the firearm. He said this incident was the first time that any of the children had touched one of his guns.
One investigator stated in the report that they did not see any type of gun lock or safe capable of storing firearms in the home. The one small safe they found only contained paperwork.
Police interviewed two children who had been present for the shooting. One, a boy, told police he could not remember anything after the children had all been in the bedroom.
A girl who was interviewed told police, "[Redacted] had a gun and I told him to put it down," she continued, "he accidentally pulled the trigger on [Redacted]."
The girl also told police that the child who had the gun had been joking about shooting the third child in the room, but then accidentally pulled the trigger when he was putting the gun down.
The girl told police she believed the shooting had been an accident, saying "[Redacted] said 'sorry' after, but [Redacted] didn't answer because he was dead."
Braxton enjoyed riding his quad with his dad and showing off his jumping skills on his bike. He loved spending time with his family. He was a member of Five Cap.
Alongside his parents, grandparents and plenty of aunts, uncles and cousins, he leaves behind two sisters and a baby brother.
His best friend was his dad, and wanted to be just like him, his family says.
"He is our Super Hero, but we are his voice," said a loved one in his obituary.
There will be a celebration of life ride for Braxton at noon on Saturday, April 27, starting at the Harvest Fremont Church parking lot. Anyone is invited to join.
The ride, escorted by the Bitely Boys Motorcycle Club, will end at Big Air Motocross, where Braxton's quad will do a memorial lap and spread some of his ashes. The Bitely Boys will then escort the crowd to the celebration of life ceremony, from 2 to 5 p.m. at Newaygo High School.
Memorial donations are welcome to Braxton's parents, Domynic and Paige, while they're off work to grieve. You're asked to make donations to them directly.
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