Status of investigation into juvenile shooting at state rep's home unclear

More than six months after a shooting at a north Alabama state representative’s home involving two juveniles, it’s unclear where the investigation stands or whether it is still ongoing.

In late March, police were called to Representative Ernie Yarbrough’s home in Trinity for a shooting. According to media reports quoting Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Brian Covington, Yarbrough’s 6-year-old son accidentally shot his 13-year-old son in the back shoulder after retrieving a loaded AR-style rifle from a bedroom inside the family’s home.

The sheriff’s office said four children, Yarbrough and his wife were inside the home at the time of the shooting.

Yarbrough and his wife initially drove his 13-year-old son to the local emergency room and later transported him to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham for treatment, according to Covington. The injury was not life-threatening.

All of that information was made public in the hours after the shooting, but since those initial reports and comments from law enforcement, there have been no updates. Nearly a month ago, as the investigation reached the half-year mark, APR reached out to Lawrence County District Attorney Errek Jett to get a case status report. There was no response.

Over the past month, APR has left at least a half-dozen messages with Jett or his staff seeking basic information about the investigation or whether it is still ongoing. Jett has not responded to any of those messages.

Likewise, the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, which stated in March that it planned to turn its investigative findings over to Jett, did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Under Alabama law, when a juvenile—particularly a young child—is involved in an accidental shooting after obtaining an unsecured loaded weapon, authorities can criminally charge the parents or responsible adults with a number of different crimes.

For example, a Birmingham father was indicted for reckless manslaughter in 2024 after his 3-year-old son accidentally shot himself. Stephen Goldman, who had no prior record, eventually pleaded guilty to a reckless endangerment charge and received a year’s probation and community service.

A Franklin County mother was charged in 2024 with criminally negligent homicide after her 4-year-old son accidentally shot his 8-year-old brother, killing him. The gun used had recently been removed from Kimberly Boykin’s car when the siblings found it and began playing with it. Boykin eventually pleaded guilty to the charge and received a suspended one-year jail sentence and a year of probation. She was also required to attend parenting classes.

Whether charges are brought, however, is often left up to the district attorneys and the facts of the case. Many of those key facts in the Yarbrough case are unknown to the public and will be the determining factors in whether charges could be brought.

“If you’ve got a loaded gun and you’ve got children in the house, you got to worry about a civil lawsuit if someone gets hurt and you got to worry about possible criminal prosecution,” Huntsville attorney Mark McDaniel told WHNT-19 in March.

McDaniel said the potential for criminal prosecution depends on a number of factors and that the burden is higher for a criminal case than a civil lawsuit, but he also said such charges are not uncommon when children are involved in accidental shootings.

“The parent can be held responsible, not for the child’s act, but the fact that they were negligent having the gun out there where a child could get to it,” McDaniel said.

Whether that was the case for the Yarbroughs is unclear. A message left with Ernie Yarbrough also went unanswered.