The accidental shooting death of a Gaylesville child has become the subject of a lawsuit filed against the manufacturer of the gun in the incident.

The Birmingham-based law firm of Morris, Haynes, Wheeles, Knowles & Nelson – and West Virginia law firm Bailey & Glasser, announced that lawsuit was filed in Dade County Florida against Taurus International.

Back in February of this year (2015), eleven year old D.J. Simms from Gaylesville was fatally injured, when he was struck by a bullet inside the family home; the initial reports indicated that the boy’s father had been cleaning a gun when the weapon discharged.

However, Bailey & Glasser attorney David Selby II said the father was placing a magazine in the gun and had bumped his hand against the bottom to seat it, and the gun discharged.

That shot traveled through the father’s hand and struck the eleven year old, killing him; the bullet also hit the mother in the elbow.

Both parents were taken to the hospital for treatment while the child was pronounced dead at the scene; that lawsuit claims the incident was due to a design flaw, making certain types of Taurus pistols likely to discharge when the pistol is subjected to an impact or dropped; it was also stated the gun is still capable of being fired by a trigger pull – even when the safety appears to be in the “safe” position.

Attorney Todd Wheeles said the suit contends that Taurus knew about the design flaws and in spite of that, continued to market the weapon.

(Rome News-Tribune/www.northwestgeorgianews.com)