Affidavit: 7-year-old Wichita boy was shot, killed by another child while ‘playing guns’

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - New information has been released regarding the tragic shooting death of a 7-year-old boy in southeast Wichita earlier this month.

According to court documents, shortly after midnight on March 16, officers responded to a call about a shooting at an apartment complex in the 3700 block of East Ross Parkway, an area southeast of Pawnee and Hillside. A 911 caller reported that a 4-year-old had been playing with a gun and a 7-year-old had been shot.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found 7-year-old Davion Gunter outside the apartments with a gunshot wound to the chest. He was taken to the hospital, where he died from his injuries.

According to the affidavit, one officer described seeing a pool of blood around the door of the apartment and multiple children crying inside.

As officers cleared the apartment, they determined that it belonged to 25-year-old Tasha Dillard, who itted to hosting a small party with some friends that evening.

In an interview with police, one of the friends said the seven children, ranging in age from nine to one, were inside the apartment playing while the adults stayed outside in a car, drinking tequila.

According to the affidavit, during this time, one of the children discovered a gun in Dillard’s purse on the kitchen counter. The children then went into a bedroom to “play guns,” and it was there that Gunter was shot in the stomach.

While Dillard initially denied owning or having any guns in the house, the affidavit said she posted a video earlier in the day on social media, showing herself holding a gun. The video was saved on her phone. One of the friends also claimed that Dillard “got a gun a few weeks ago.”

Dillard is not Gunter’s biological mother, but one of the friends at the apartment was. Dillard is facing charges of first-degree murder and seven counts of aggravated child endangerment. Her next court date is Monday.

According to records provided by the Kansas Department for Children and Families, Gunter was hurt in a prior incident involving a gun in 2021, among two other reports of abuse and lack of supervision in the home ranging from a skull fracture when he was nine months old to cuts on the inside of his lip in 2021.

Since the shooting, the Wichita Police Department and the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office have ed up to give away free gun locks in hopes of keeping the community safe.

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