Stray bullet kills new father at son’s welcome home party
PANAMA CITY, Fla. >> A new father in Florida was killed by a stray bullet that traveled more than 200 feet from a neighbor’s house and hit him in the back of the head.
Bay County Sheriff’s officials were quoted by the The News Herald of Panama City as saying that 33-year-old Steven Justin Ayers was killed instantly during a family gathering he and his wife, Jessica, were having at their home to celebrate the birth of their 3-day-old son, born on Father’s Day.
Police say Ayers’ 62-year-old neighbor Charles Edward Shisler is accused of manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a felon. Investigators say Shisler told them the 9 mm pistol accidentally discharged when he picked it up inside his home Tuesday night. The bullet traveled through Shisler’s window and into the Ayers home.