Lansing woman convicted of accidentally shooting her 2-year-old son

LANSING, Mich. – A 26-year-old Lansing woman will spend five years behind bars after her 2-year-old son was shot and killed in October.

The child obtained a gun and shot himself in front of a gas station in Lansing on October 24, 2023.

According to authorities, Emma Huver, her son and Avis Coward drove to the gas station, where Coward went inside. While they were inside, surveillance video from the parking lot showed a bullet hole in the passenger window before Huver got out of the car with her bleeding son. As she got out of the car, a handgun fell to the ground.

According to court documents, Huver told police that her son climbed into the front seat after Coward got out of the vehicle and that she was on the phone when the child shot himself in the head.

Huver and the child entered the gas station, where a Good Samaritan attempted to stop the bleeding before emergency personnel arrived.

The video shows Coward returning to the car, picking up the gun from the ground, placing it in the car and smashing the window with the bullet hole before driving away.

The boy died the next day.

Huver faced multiple charges, including manslaughter and child abuse, before pleading guilty to illegal possession of a firearm in April.

Background: Lansing woman pleads guilty in accidental shooting death of her 2-year-old son

Huver was sentenced to 60 months in a federal prison on Monday, September 16.

She is not the only one facing prison in connection with the boy's death.

Coward was arrested the day of the shooting. Authorities said he made several calls from jail, including to a man who offered to “clean up” anything Coward needed. During those calls, Coward is accused of directing a man and a woman to recover and dispose of evidence.

After hearing the phone calls, police identified the man, arrested him, and recovered a 9mm handgun from his vehicle on Oct. 31. According to court documents, the man said he found two guns in the sewer where Coward led him. The second gun had reportedly been disassembled and its parts hidden and sold. Police found the barrel of the second gun hidden in a wall of a Lansing home.

The burned-out remains of the vehicle in which the boy was shot were found abandoned in a field in Lansing the same day.

Coward pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and Schieberl pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence.