NEWAYGO COUNTY, Mich. — Editors note: The following story contains quotes and information from a police report in which names, ages and other identifying information was redacted.
Less than a month after the shooting death of a 5-year-old, Michigan State Police have released their full report on 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.
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. The released report states that once inside, troopers found a child dead from a gunshot wound in one of the bedrooms.
A trooper asked a person on scene 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.
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 a person on scene in another interview. That same person 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 had 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 ten 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."
Another person interviewed told police they had been watching all of the children for the day, they had left to go to the store for a while and when they returned the children were in the room watching TV.
In a previous interview with 13 ON YOUR SIDE Braxton's father said the children were not playing with the gun leading up to the shooting and that Braxton was in the room watching TV with his sister.
"My son sat down on the floor right underneath his sister, started watching TV. And the six-year-old cousin shut the door. And there's a shotgun, 12 gauge shotgun behind the door. And he pointed it at my son and said 'I was going to shoot you.' That's when my daughter went to get up, go tell her grandpa, and she didn't make it out the door," said Dykstra.
The father said he believes the 6-year-old's mother and the grandparents should be held accountable.
"Should the mother do more time? Yes, absolutely. She failed her child. Did not teach him discipline. You know, but the, like I said the father-in-law. Definitely. He left he's the one that left the gun out. He said it was unloaded. But my son would still be here if it was unloaded," said Dykstra.
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 Motorcross, 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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