Civil settlement reached in shooting death of Wilton boy

PHOTOGRAPHER: Stephen Williams

A settlement was reached Thursday in a civil lawsuit arising from the shooting death of 12-year-old Nicholas Y. Naumkin by another boy at a Wilton home in 2010.

The terms of the settlement, reached during the third day of a jury trial in state Supreme Court, were sealed by order of state Supreme Court Judge Robert Chauvin because there is an infant involved.

Oxsana M. Naumkin, as administrator of her son’s estate, had filed the wrongful death lawsuit against Edward O’Rourke, who owned the gun involved.

Because of the order, O’Rourke’s attorney, Paul Briggs of Schenectady, said he couldn’t provide any details of the monetary settlement.

In what Chauvin, in a pre-trial ruling, termed “an extremely unfortunate loss of life,” Naumkin was shot to death three days before Christmas 2010 by O’Rourke’s 12-year-old son, who was a friend of Naumkin’s.

In separate earlier proceedings, the boy faced a charge in Family Court and in 2011 admitted what happened, and was ordered to be on probation for two years and receive mental health counseling.

O’Rourke in 2012 pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child in Saratoga Springs City Court. He agreed to forfeit his handgun and all other firearms along with his handgun license.

O’Rourke admitted that he left his 9-mm Ruger handgun and ammunition where his son and Naumkin found it on Dec. 22, 2010 — under clothing in a bedroom dresser drawer. The two boys were alone that afternoon in the Wilton home.

According to testimony at the this week’s trial, the boys were playing combat video games when the O’Rourke child decided to show his friend his father’s real gun.

The gun was fired and hit Naumkin in the head. Naumkin died at Albany Medical Center Hospital that night.

In the wrongful death suit, filed in 2011, the Naumkin estate contended O’Rourke was irresponsible for leaving his handgun where it could be found and used, rather than in a locked box.

Before trial, Chauvin ruled that there were sufficient questions about O’Rourke’s civil liability to warrant a jury trial.