2-year-old accidentally shoots, kills father

A 31-year-old man was found dead and police in a Birmingham, Alabama, suburb say the man's 2-year-old son may have accidentally shot him.

A woman told police she came home Tuesday and discovered her husband dead of a gunshot wound to the head inside their apartment, Hoover police detective Gregg Rector said.

"I can't completely go out on a limb and say it was accidental or how he was shot, but the mother of the child called us and said she discovered him and thinks their son may have shot him," Rector said. "We don't have any indications of an intruder or any indication that the gunshot was self-inflicted."

The man, who Rector identified as 31-year-old Divine Vaniah Chambliss, and the boy "were possibly the only two individuals who were present when the incident occurred," a police press release said.

In an email Wednesday to CNN, Rector said: "This is not going to be a suicide and so far there is no evidence of an intruder or any other third person involved. I can't, with certainty, rule out other possibilities at this time, but this is looking more and more like a horrible, accidental shooting by a child who found a handgun in the home."

An autopsy will be conducted, but Rector wasn't sure when the results would be released.

"This investigation is still in its very early stages and detectives are not completely ruling out other possibilities," the press release said.

Hoover is a town of about 84,000 people in north-central Alabama.

Credit: Graphiconline