In the quiet community of Browns Mills, New Jersey, a heart-wrenching incident unfolded on February 7, 2020, forever altering the lives of a local family. Four-year-old Lincoln Cooper Mack, a young Caucasian boy, died that evening from a gunshot wound. The circumstances of his death, initially shrouded in tragedy, soon led to a criminal investigation that pointed to a devastating accident born from negligence.
On that Friday evening, emergency services were called to the Mack family home
on Maricopa Trail. They found young Lincoln with a gunshot wound to his cheek. Despite being rushed to a nearby emergency room, the child succumbed to his injury and was pronounced dead. The subsequent investigation by the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office and the Pemberton Township Police Department pieced together the sorrowful events of that night.
It was determined that Lincoln's father, 31-year-old Andrew Mack, had been asleep in his bedroom with a loaded 9mm handgun left unsecured on the bed beside him. Young Lincoln entered the room and, finding the firearm, took it to another room where he was playing with his younger sister. In a moment of childish curiosity, the gun discharged, inflicting the fatal wound. At the time of the incident, both of Lincoln's parents and his two siblings were present in the home.
Following the investigation, Andrew Mack was taken into custody and charged with endangering the welfare of a child and improperly storing a weapon where minors could access it. Authorities described the event as an 'unspeakable tragedy' that was 'entirely preventable.' The Burlington County Prosecutor emphasized that while their sympathies were with the family for their profound loss, the father needed to be held accountable for his failure to secure the firearm, a failure that led to the death of his own son.
