New Year’s reveler was dancing with gun when weapon went off, killing 4-year-old child in Texas: cops Nelson Oliveira A New Year’s Eve celebration turned into tragedy for a Texas family after a man dancing with a gun fired the weapon inside a Dallas-area home, fatally striking a 4-year-old boy in the head in an apparently accidental shooting, police said. Messiah Taplin was pronounced dead at a hospital just after 1 a.m. Friday, prompting a homicide investigation overnight and a manslaughter charge against the alleged shooter, 21-year-old Zantyler Foster-Hooks. Police said the suspect and several other partygoers tried to cover up the shooting, falsely claiming that the child had been shot by a stray bullet.