SEDRO-WOOLEY, Wash. — A convicted felon is on the run in wooded rural Washington after a 4-year-old boy died Sunday of a gunshot at his home.
The man, 25-year-old Trevor Braymiller, is considered armed and dangerous, Sedro-Woolley police Chief Doug Wood said.
"He's been in the area for quite some time," Wood said. "He's a convicted felon with a prior conviction for selling drugs," Wood said.
Initial reports Sunday morning said the boy had shot himself with a gun, Wood said, but after a medical examiner looked at the boy, it was determined that was not the case. Wood said investigators are treating the case as a homicide.
Braymiller is believed to be moving on foot, with officers from several law enforcement agencies chasing him. Wood described Braymiller as having "scruffy" facial hair and wearing a red or orange shirt.
Sedro-Woolley is a town of about 10,000 people 70 miles north of Seattle in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.
On Sunday afternoon, officers were focusing the search on the Big Lake area, just south of the town, Wood said.
Investigators believe Braymiller was not the boy's father, but rather a father figure.
The boy's mother was questioned and is now with her family. Another boy was also at the home at the time of the shooting, Wood said.
The home is well known to officers in the area. In 2011, police conducted a drug raid there, the Skagit Valley Herald reported (http://bit.ly/1bCLFkj).
The boy was transported to Skagit Valley Hospital and was pronounced dead.
