Derrick Vaughn, 18, a Black/African American male, died on July 13, 2016, in Omaha, Nebraska, after an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot while handling a firearm inside a family member s home near 36th and Grand. Police identified him at the scene and described the shooting as an accident. Loved ones gathered outside the house through the afternoon, remembering a young man who had just graduated from Northwest High School weeks earlier.
Officers were dispatched to the 4700 block of North 36th Avenue, where they found Vaughn deceased from a wound sustained when the gun discharged as he was playing with it. Investigators labeled the shooting accidental and self-inflicted; consequently, no suspects were pursued and no arrests were announced in connection with his death.
In the days that followed, his name was recorded among those lost to gunfire on July 13, 2016, and memorialized by friends and family. Public records also confirm his birth in 1997 and death in Omaha on that date, marking the close of a short life that had only just stepped into adulthood.
