White/Caucasian Kadin Tige Mann, a 5-year-old boy from the Lake Iliamna region, died after an accidental shooting in the village of Kokhanok on the south shore of Iliamna Lake. Alaska State Troopers said the 5-year-old was at home playing video games when an 11-year-old child found an unsecured. 22-caliber rifle and fired a single shot that struck the 5-year-old. He was medevacked from Kokhanok to Anchorage, where he died the next day, on January 24, 2016, following the initial shooting on Saturday, January 23.
Investigators from the Alaska State Troopers and the Alaska Bureau of Investigation responded to the scene and used specialized equipment while processing the home, but early statements did not identify who had fired the gun beyond describing the shooter as an 11-year-old child, nor did they release the relationship between the children. Reporting at the time emphasized that the shot was considered accidental and that details about exactly how the rifle was accessed remained under investigation.
News from the community in the immediate aftermath described grief counseling for classmates and neighbors in the small village of roughly 160 people, a place where nearly everyone knew the 5-year-old and his family. A community fundraiser for funeral expenses was launched as residents gathered to support the family during the investigation.
Authorities described the death as an accidental shooting, and contemporaneous reports do not indicate any arrests. Because the shooter was 11 years old, officials withheld the child's identity, and there is no public record in these reports of criminal charges being filed in connection with the incident.
