Routt County authorities on Friday identified the 3-year-old boy and also identified his father, a Steamboat Springs police officer.
Gavin Michael Stiles turned 3 years old in May, investigators say. His father, Michael Richard Stiles, is a patrol officer for the Steamboat Springs Police Department.
The Routt County Sheriff’s Office said it was notified of the shooting about 8:30 a.m. on Thursday. Deputies and medical personnel responded and placed the boy in an ambulance for transport to Yampa Valley Medical Center.
At about 11 a.m., Gavin was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The sheriff’s office says it is working with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to investigate the shooting, which happened at an address about 25 miles south of Steamboat Springs. The case has been classified as a “death investigation.”
Further details on the shooting have not been released, including the owner of the gun the boy shot himself with. The county coroner, when reached Friday by phone, declined to comment and referred all questions to the sheriff’s office.
Updated Aug. 2 at 10:30 a.m. Because of a reporter’s error, an earlier version of this story misspelled the last names of the boy who died and his father. Their surname is Stiles.
