Teen 'Accidentally' Kills Himself During Video Chat

Authorities in Farmington, Maine, say it was 'horrific'
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 19, 2020 4:56 PM CDT
Teen 'Accidentally' Kills Himself During Video Chat
Stock image.   (Getty Images)

A Maine teenager is dead after accidentally shooting himself Monday during a video chat, authorities say. The Sun Journal reports that the 16-year-old, who remains unidentified, was an honor roll student at Mt. Blue High School in Farmington. The boy apparently took a family member's gun out of a closet and thought it was unloaded. His online friend knew something was wrong when the victim stopped responding in the chat; the friend, accompanied by a parent, went to the boy's home and found his body. "The event is not suspicious and considered to be the result of a horrific accident," CBS Boston quotes the Franklin County Sheriff’s office as saying.

Now Maine School Administrative District 9 is grappling with the tragic loss by gathering resources for staff and students: "A death of a student can be really deep and spread out around the district," Superintendent Tina Meserve tells News Center Maine. "And same with our community, our community is small, we know everybody so the family and friends of the students are impacted in ways that are more complex than say in a larger city where people don't know each other as well." (More accidental death stories.)

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