Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin released information about the accidental shooting death of an 11-year-old Allentown boy on Dec. 27.

Martin said the investigation by city police and the Lehigh County Homicide Task Force showed the boy was accidentally shot by his 10-year-old brother.

Police responded to a residence in the 600 block of North Front Street at 7:24 p.m. and found the boy suffering from the gunshot wound. He was transferred to the Lehigh Valley Hospital, Salisbury Township.

He said the two boys, an older brother and their parents stopped unexpectedly at the home that is owned by an aunt of the father of the boys. The aunt’s 24-year-old son lives in the basement and was home at the time.

The district attorney said the 24-year-old is the owner of two 9 mm handguns which were in the basemen. He had the guns out of a lock box because he had recently been shooting and was planning to clean them.

Police said when the 24-year-old heard the boys arrive upstairs, he attempted to quickly hide the guns, with the expectation the boys might be coming into the basement to play video games, as they sometimes did when visiting the home.

Martin said the 10-year-old and 11-year-old did go downstairs to play video gamesThe 24-year-old went upstairs to visit the rest of the family. A short time later, he said, a gunshot was heard and the 11-year-old boy was discovered to be severely injured.

Calling the incident “a tragic accidental shooting,” Martin said the 10-year-old boy will not be charged. He said the 24-year-old is not being identified because he is not being prosecuted.

Martin said, “While a case can be made that the guns should have been placed into a lock box that was available, the investigation has disclosed the owner did not want the boys to even see the guns and he made a good faith effort to hurriedly hide them. Unfortunately, they were discovered and this tragic event occurred.”

Martin said the county coroner has scheduled an autopsy to be performed Friday and will rule on the cause and manner of the death at that time.