We dug down a good 15-18 feet to fix foundation drainage on our house a couple years ago. 20 feet isn't spectacuarly deep. We didn't secure a *expletive deleted* permit either
You don't go down in a trench without shoring...the children shouldn't have been down there.
The depth is fairly irrelevant in this case, shallower trenches/holes collapse all the time.
The article doesn't go into detail but
"Arwood was charged with possession of a gun by a felon"
Looks like he's been previously convicted of a felony. Sorry, the law is pretty clear on that one, felons cannot posses guns. Shoulda been smarter than to keep guns and drugs around the house (what kind of responsible father keeps drugs in the same house as his kids? The *expletive deleted*ck?)