Investigators found a handgun Wednesday near the rural western Indiana site where a 16-month-old boy was fatally shot as his father pushed him in a stroller, the county prosecutor said.
Greene County Prosecutor Jarrod Holtsclaw told the Greene County Daily World that the handgun was found Wednesday morning in a wooded, weed-filled area near the site where Travis Bohannon killed Sunday night.
He said the Indiana State Police Lab in Indianapolis will conduct ballistic tests on the gun and search it for fingerprints. Holtsclaw called the gun’s discovery a key development.
“Obviously we have a case where a person is shot and finding a firearm in or near the area of the shooting is important,” he told the newspaper. “The area near the scene is very grown up.”
Messages seeking comment were left Wednesday with the county prosecutor’s office and the county sheriff. First Sgt. Dave Bursten of Indiana State Police referred calls to the county sheriff’s department.
Travis Bohannon was shot in the head with a single bullet Sunday as his father was taking the boy and his 4-year-old brother on a walk in the town of Midland, about 25 miles southeast of Terre Haute.
The older boy was walking along side his father at the time of the shooting.
Holtsclaw said an autopsy performed on the toddler failed to find a bullet.
Greene County Coroner Brian Gainey has ruled the boy’s death a homicide, a term he stressed does not necessarily constitute murder in the legal term.
The boy’s funeral is set for 11 a.m. Friday at Mattox-Wood Funeral Home in Terre Haute.
The boy’s father, 29-year-old Ronald Bohannon, was being held Wednesday on a Vigo County arrest warrant on unrelated charges of receiving stolen property.
The two boys were at their father’s Greene County home at Midland for a weekend visit. Their parents, Ronald and Jamie Bohannon are in the midst of a divorce.
No arrests have been reported, and police have said that hunters frequent the area.
Information from: the Greene County Daily World, http://gcdailyworld.com/
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