The parents of a 3-year-old Saco boy who died of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound are suing the Vermont woman who owned the loaded gun he found in a bedside table.
Greg and Evelyn Bunce, the parents of Peter Bunce, allege in a civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Vermont that Rebecca Post was negligent and reckless when she failed to tell them that she had unsecured, loaded firearms in her home. While staying at Post’s house in Barre during a family trip last year, Peter Bunce found a loaded pistol and died after he accidentally fired a round into his head.
He died on June 26, 2021.
Mark Franco, an attorney with Drummond Woodsum who represents the Bunce family, said Peter’s death was “a senseless, preventable tragedy.”
“The Bunce family remains devastated by the loss of Peter and their lives have been changed forever,” Franco said in a statement on Thursday.
The lawsuit also names Post Insurance & Financial Inc., a company owned by Post’s father where she is a manager. Post kept guns in her home in part to protect her home office on Post Insurance’s behalf, according to the lawsuit, which says the company and Post should have known that an unsecured, loaded pistol “presented a grave danger to children.”
In a response to the lawsuit filed Nov. 18, the company denied it knew about the guns at Post’s home.
“The facts underlying the case are truly tragic. That being said, the estate’s attempts to impose liability on my client, Ms. Post’s employer, for events that took place at her home and which are completely unrelated to her work, is unprecedented and unsupportable,” attorney Susan Flynn of Clark, Werner & Flynn in Burlington, Vermont, said in a statement.
Attempts to contact Post or an attorney representing her were unsuccessful Thursday. She has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit.
No criminal charges were filed in connection with Peter Bunce’s death, which was ruled accidental by the Vermont Medical Examiner’s Officer. Vermont does not have a safe storage law that requires unattended firearms to be stored in a certain way.
Post was dating Greg Bunce’s brother and on June 25, 2021, Bunce traveled to Barre with Peter and his 7-year-old daughter to spend the night at Post’s home not knowing that there were loaded, unsecured guns in the house, the lawsuit states.
The following morning while he was alone in the master bedroom, Peter found a loaded Glock 9 mm pistol with a 10-round magazine in Post’s bedside table.
“Greg was just downstairs when he heard the gunshot and a thud from upstairs, placing him in immediate fear for his own life. Greg and Evelyn have suffered tremendous pain from the sudden and horrific death of their son,” Franco wrote in the complaint.
The Bunce family is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Franco said the Bunce family has requested privacy.
“They are hopeful that this lawsuit will bring a greater awareness to the dangers of allowing loaded firearms to be kept in unlocked and easily accessible locations in a home where a homeowner is aware of the presence of young and innocent children,” he said.
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