Staff writer
A 27-year-old construction worker from Jefferson City, Missouri, shot himself in the head early Sunday while visiting a Marion family.
Interim Police Chief Zach Hudlin said it did not seem to be a deliberate suicide but an unfortunate accident.
“He was being reckless,” Hudlin said.
The man, Cole Forck, stayed in a camper at Chapman and often spent weekends visiting a Marion family in the 200 block of S. Freeborn St.
Four other people including an infant were in the home at the time, he said.
The infant and an adult were sleeping. The others were getting ready for bed.
Forck had been drinking that evening and playing with a gun that he thought was unloaded.
“The people that were there had no reason to believe he was suicidal,” Hudlin said. “I don’t believe if you were going to commit suicide, you’d do it in front of an audience.”
Hudlin arranged for Jefferson City police to notify Forck’s family and spoke with his mother an hour and a half later.