OCOEE, Fla. -- There were serious questions Monday about a tragic accident in Ocoee that left a toddler dead. An autopsy was underway Monday on the 23-month-old boy whose family says accidentally shot himself with his father's gun.

The father says Taylor Rodgers picked up a loaded .38-caliber handgun Sunday morning while everyone was sleeping in the home on Keaton Parkway in Ocoee and fatally shot himself.

Imagine lifting two gallon sized bottles of water with a finger. That would nearly be the equivalent of pulling the trigger of a .38-caliber handgun. It's not easy and that's one thing Ocoee police are looking into. Could a 23-month-old toddler actually shoot himself?

Tyler won't celebrate his second birthday. Just shy of 2 years old, he apparently found his father's gun and shot himself. The family is not talking, not releasing pictures and just asking people to keep him in their thoughts and prayers.

"Some of them are in shock, some grieving. It's a very bad situation," said Officer Bill Richardson, Ocoee Police Department.

The 911 call went out Sunday morning that the toddler had shot himself.

"We know what we've been told. Now we're trying to prove or disprove that information," Richardson said.

Ocoee police are not releasing the name of the boy's parents or grandparents. However, the child's mom was not at the Keaton Parkway house when the shooting happened.

The gun in question is a .38 Special double-action revolver. It would take 12 to 14 pounds of pressure to pull the trigger, unless the gun was cocked.

"Forget what you see on TV. Cops or bad guys don't walk around with a gun cocked. You just don't do that," gun expert Larry Anderson told Eyewitness News.

Anderson said guns don't go off easily, even if they're dropped, even on older model revolvers that don't have a transfer bar.

"If it hit hard enough, it would have to hit pretty hard, real hard," Anderson said.

Detectives do know the gun is not stolen and was not registered, which is not mandatory in the state of Florida. Police are still waiting on autopsy results and ballistic testing to know if anyone will be arrested. Regardless, a felony law may have been broken.

"It is a crime for me or any other gun owner to leave a gun where it can be gotten by a minor," Anderson said.

One of the challenges for police in the investigation is that the toddler had been picked up and the gun moved by the time police arrived, about four minutes after the 911 call. Police now are investigating if there was any gun residue left on the child's hand.

It is a crime in Florida to leave a loaded gun within the reach of a child. It's only a misdemeanor, unless the child injures himself or someone else. Then the crime becomes a felony. Gun dealer are required to give gun buyers a written warning about the law.