COEUR d'ALENE - Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh on Tuesday said his office has begun reviewing the death of 7-year-old Coeur d'Alene resident Conner Bartlett for potential criminal charges.

The boy was shot and killed last month while hunting with family.

McHugh said his office has just received the investigation report detailing the Oct. 15 death. The report was completed by the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department.

"I don't have a timeline for a decision," he told The Press.

He declined to comment on the investigation. He also declined to release the investigation report.

Sheriff's department spokesman Maj. Ben Wolfinger said the entire report was sent to the prosecutor's office at the end of last week for review.

Just after Conner's death, the sheriff's department said its preliminary investigation showed he had gone with family members on a hunting trip.

They had been hunting on property located on Sunset Drive in southeast Kootenai County.

At the completion of the day's activities, Conner's father, Robert A. Bartlett, of St. Maries, was placing a hunting rifle back into a vehicle where Conner was present. The gun discharged and Conner was struck by a bullet, the sheriff's department said in a press release.

At nearly 8 p.m. that day, sheriff's deputies, St. Maries fire personnel and Northwest MedStar responded to the reported shooting on the 4600 block of Sunset Drive off Highway 97 near Harrison.

Conner was taken by ambulance to the O'Gara Road fire station where MedStar landed. He was pronounced dead at that location, the sheriff's department said.

Conner lived with his mother and attended Skyway Elementary school in Coeur d'Alene.

"Any time a child is tragically killed like that it's always tough on the investigators, there's no question about that," Wolfinger said.

Most of the report was completed several weeks ago, but laboratory work lingered, which was frustrating, he said.

"The state labs are just so underfunded and understaffed that it takes a long time to get stuff back for us," Wolfinger said. "It's not like television where you get everything back in 20 minutes, minus commercials."