Update: Arlington teen charged in friend’s shooting death
Update at 3:19 p.m.: The 16-year-old has been charged with criminal negligent homicide, Arlington police said in a news release this afternoon.
Police said the boys were unattended in a room when the gun discharged, striking the 17-year-old in the head. The 16-year-old’s grandparents who owned the home were not in the room where the shooting happened.
Police are investigating how the firearm, which was reported stolen in November, ended up at the house.
Update at 9:49 a.m.: Arlington police detectives said Thursday they have not decided whether to charge a 16-year-old male in the shooting death of his 17-year-old friend.
Neighbors said the 16-year-old lives with his grandparents in the home where the shooting occurred early Thursday in the 1200 block of Golden View Court. The teen’s relatives were at the house when police left but declined to comment.
Some neighbors, who asked not to be identified, described the home where the shooting occurred as a “hangout house. One neighbor, who said she has known the 16-year-old since elementary school, described the teens involved in the shooting close friends. She said she often saw them in the neighborhood, hanging out and smoking, at times when they should have been in school.
One neighbor, Tony Glenn, said the slain 17-year-old had a rocky relationship with his father. Glenn said the teen told him he thought his parents were too hard on him, while the father told Glenn he worried about the company his son was keeping.
“He wanted to do what he wanted to do,” Glenn said. “His dad wanted him to straighten up and finish school.”
Glenn said he had started hiring the teen for small jobs around his house.
“From talking to him, I just felt he needed some guidance,” Glenn said.
But on Thursday, the teen’s father’s fears became an unfortunate reality.
“He said he was worried one day something would happen to his son,” Glenn said. “And now it happened. It’s just sad.”
Original post at 5:44 a.m.: A teenager was killed by a friend early Thursday in an accidental shooting in South Arlington, police say.
Officers were called to the home shortly after midnight and found a 17-year-old dead at the house in the 1200 block of Golden View Court, off South Cooper Street.
Investigators believe he and his 16-year-old friend were playing with a handgun when the younger boy accidentally pulled the trigger.
Police said they are speaking to the 16-year-old and others who were in the house at the time, but KTVT-TV (CBS11) reports that they don’t anticipate filing charges.
The shooting remains under investigation.