In the quiet subdivision of White Gables in Summerville, South Carolina, the life of a young boy named Liam Morrison was cut tragically short. Three-year-old Liam, a White male, was at home on June 29, 2023, when the incident occurred. He had been left unsupervised in his parents' upstairs bedroom, occupied with a tablet, while his mother, Sierra Morrison, was downstairs.
The period of quiet was shattered by a loud noise that sent his mother rushing to the room.
There, she was met with a devastating scene: her son on the floor with a firearm near his feet. Emergency services were called, and Liam was transported to Summerville Medical Center, but his injuries were too severe, and he was pronounced dead. The cause of death was determined to be an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The subsequent investigation by the Summerville Police Department, the State Law Enforcement Division, and the Dorchester County Coroner's Office pieced together the events that led to the tragedy. Investigators discovered that while the bedroom contained a locked gun cabinet, a loaded firearm had been left unsecured in the top drawer of a nightstand. It was this unsecured weapon that the curious toddler had managed to access.
As a result of the investigation, Sierra Morrison faced legal consequences for her role in the events that led to her son's death. On July 14, 2023, she turned herself in to the authorities. She was charged with unlawful conduct toward a child, a felony that carries a potential prison sentence of up to ten years.
