The July shooting death of a former Vicksburg resident, initially thought to be suicide, then homicide, was “likely accidental,” Forrest County Coroner Butch Benedict said Tuesday.

Lance Logan, 24, who was a senior at the University of Southern Mississippi, died from a single gunshot wound in the head July 14. Logan’s body was found in an apartment at the Point o’ Woods complex in the 500 block of 38th Avenue, not far from the USM campus.

Initial observations led Benedict to believe Logan shot himself, but an autopsy revealed other wounds suggesting self-defense, said Benedict — primarily a second bullet wound in Logan’s left arm.

Further investigation, including reconstruction of the bullet’s path based on analyzing the angles of Logan’s wounds, led the coroner to change the cause of death to “undetermined,” he said in a telephone interview.

“If I had to absolutely confirm it in a court of law, I would say it was likely accidental,” said Benedict. “The angle of the bullet is from the ground up. With that angle, you’d have to be lying on the ground to make that shot. As the investigation has gone on, nothing has proved to us that (the arm wound) was a defensive wound.”

Logan is believed to have died at around 2 or 3 a.m. His body was discovered about 12 hours later by a friend who’d been alerted by Logan’s fiance, who was working in Vicksburg, that she had not been able to reach him.

Benedict said he believes Logan was handling the gun and dropped it. Pathologists and investigators tested the weapon, a “Western style” revolver similar to a .22 caliber, he said, and it fired when it hit the ground, he said.

In addition, the way Logan’s body was lying and the pattern of blood found at the scene is more consistent with an accident than a homicide, the coroner said.

Benedict said the Forrest County Grand Jury reviewed the evidence when it was convened in September.

A spokesman for the office of the Forrest County district attorney, who presents information to a grand jury, did not return a call seeking information.

Lt. Eric Proulx, public information officer for the Hattiesburg police, said, however, the grand jury has not issued official notice of its finding, and he declined to discuss the status of the investigation or whether the department considered it closed.

Proulx said grand jurors reviewed all evidence, including statements from witnesses and a number of “persons of interest” close to Logan whom the police had questioned.

While grand juries generally review evidence against specific suspects, they are empowered to review cases.

“It’s not something we do on a regular basis but in this case, given the circumstances and the evidence at the scene, we thought it best,” Proulx said.

He said the department would issue a statement as soon as the grand jury report was received.

Logan, who was a U.S. Army veteran and had attended West Point Military Academy in New York, was due to graduate from USM in December with a major in international business and a minor in German.

He was a 2005 graduate of St. Aloysius High School.