DeKalb man sleeping with gun under pillow fatally shoots 2-year-old son, cops say

A 2-year-old was fatally shot after a gun kept underneath his father’s pillow went off in their DeKalb County home, police said.

The boy’s father, Tyquontae Brunson, is facing charges of second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children in the Oct. 9 incident.

When a DeKalb officer arrived at Emory Decatur Hospital just past midnight, a FedEx van was blocking a ramp and a “significant amount of blood” was on the driver’s seat and door, an incident report obtained Monday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reveals. The officer soon found out that the blood belonged to the boy, who had been shot in the head and was receiving “aggressive medical attention,” according to the report.

While doctors worked to try to save the child, officers spoke with Brunson to try to figure out what had led to the shooting. According to police, the 23-year-old said he shared a bed with his son and kept a gun under his pillow every night.

“He stated he was sound asleep and did not hear the gunshot, but when he awoke he noticed his son was breathing strangely,” the report states.

That’s when Brunson saw his son had been fatally wounded, according to the report, and he immediately climbed into his FedEx delivery van and drove to the hospital.