Contacted Tuesday, the Rev. Nathan Boehm — Clavier’s father-in-law — said the family had not been advised of the medical examiner’s ruling or “heard anything official from the police.”

“They were doing ballistics on the bullet, and that’s what we’ve been waiting on this whole time,” said Boehm, pastor of Richmond Family Worship Center on Belmont Road in Chesterfield. “If they come back and say the bullet is from his gun, OK, I’m good with that.”

But it “was my understanding that there was no gunpowder residue found anywhere” in the vehicle, Boehm added. “You’re not going to have a gun go off without gunpowder” being expelled.

Boehm said Clavier had a concealed-carry permit and carried a firearm for protection. And when he drove, he would take the firearm out of his belt or waistband and lay it beside him in the vehicle.

He said Clavier’s oldest child, a 9-year-old girl, has been able to recall that she saw her father’s gun on the front seat console and when they crashed into a tree that day, “it fell from the console where he had set it and ended up on the floor.”