Greenville S.C.

Family gripped with grief over shooting death of toddler: ‘It was an accident’

Whether riding around on toy fire trucks, watching Paw Patrol or chasing the family dogs, 2-year-old Kayden Stuber was rarely apart from his grandma.

Bekki Gunter quit her job to stay in their Greenville home and help raise the boy so her daughter, the boy’s mother, could go to work, Kayden’s grandfather Tim Gunter said in an interview with The Greenville News on Friday afternoon.

“The first thing you’d hear when you wake up, you’d hear him pitter-patter right in my room, ‘Grandma? Papa?’ ” said Tim Gunter. “She would have him in the morning until he went to bed, basically.”

Kayden and Bekki Gunter had just returned home Thursday afternoon when she put her purse on her bed and went into the bathroom, Tim Gunter said.

Inside her purse was a teal-colored Glock pistol.

Within seconds, Kayden managed to unzip the purse, pull the weapon from a holster within the purse and pull the trigger, Tim Gunter said.

The child shot himself in the face, according to Senior Deputy Coroner Kent Dill.

Despite attempts by a family member to stop the bleeding, Kayden died.

“Nobody understands the situation. We’re probably one of the safest families around as far as weapons,” Tim Gunter told The Greenville News less than 24 hours after the shooting.

Tim Gunter said both he and Bekki Gunter are concealed weapon permit holders and trained in firearms safety. They decided to carry firearms in response to crime in the area and wanted to carry protection to feel safer, he said.

The grandfather’s response is just flat out evil.