KANNAPOLIS — The Cabarrus County district attorney may determine by the end of the week whether to charge the parents of a toddler who fatally shot himself Monday afternoon.

Police say Nicholas Lynn Evick, 3, somehow got into a bedroom cabinet at 203 Horne St. where his parents kept a loaded .38-caliber revolver and shot himself in the head while playing with the gun.

Nicholas’ parents, Bradley and Stephanie Evick, told police they kept the cabinet locked, and that each of them had a key. Kannapolis Police Det. Luke Blume said there was no key in the lock when he arrived at the house.

District Attorney Mark Speas and Assistant District Attorney Roxann Vaneekhoven visited the Evicks’ house Tuesday. Speas wouldn’t say whether they focused on the cabinet.

“We want to make a decision based on all the facts, rather than make a hasty and possibly incorrect decision,” he said. “We owe that to the public and we owe that to the family of the child that died so tragically.”

Blume said the cabinet was not designed to secure guns, but it’s still unclear how the toddler could have opened the cabinet if it was locked. He’ll conduct his first interview with the Evicks today.

“I’m making every effort to get as close as I can get, with the understanding that we may never know exactly what happened,” he said.

Bradley Evick was not at home when the accident occurred. Stephanie Evick was in the kitchen, and two older sons were playing elsewhere in the house, Blume said.

North Carolina law states that any person who lives with a child and keeps a gun in a condition to be fired and “in a manner that the person knew or should have known that an unsupervised minor would be able to gain access” may be charged with a misdemeanor.

Speas said that, although he cannot preclude considering other applicable laws, that appears to be the statute that would apply in this case.

The charge would carry no prison sentence for a person with no criminal record. Court records show that the Evicks have no criminal records.

“Regardless of what happens, this family is going to be left with a memory that their child died so tragically at three years of age,” Speas said. “And by all accounts, this is a loving family, so it’s going to be tough on them.”