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No Charges For Father Who Fatally Shot Son

PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) – The man who accidentally shot and killed his 7-year-old son last month will not face charges.

Mercer County District Attorney Robert Kochems said he would not file charges against 44-year-old Joseph Loughrey who tragically shot his son Craig Alan Loughrey with a gun he thought was not loaded.

Kochems said in a statement that Loughrey could be charged for carrying a firearm without a license, which carries a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

However, Kochems said in the statement, "The evidence, however, shows that Mr. Loughrey recognized that he could not carry a loaded firearm in his vehicle and believed he unloaded the firearm at home before taking it to the dealer to attempt to sell it and another weapon."

It happened outside the Twigs Reloading Den in Lackawannock Township, where Loughrey had tried to sell a gun, just prior to the shooting.

His son was in the passenger seat of the car when the gun went off.

"I heard a pop, but I was standing right here," Gladys Mohney with the store said after it happened. "… didn't realize what it was."

After the shooting, Loughrey reportedly told police he didn't know the gun was loaded and that he'd pulled the magazine out. But the bullet that killed his son came from the chamber.

"Mr. Loughrey had a mistaken but good faith belief that he had properly secured and stored the firearm unloaded in his home and his belief was the proximate cause of the death of his son and not that he was carrying the firearm in his vehicle," Kochems' statement read.

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