Best Friend Kills Boy, 12, With Pellet Gun

Justin Ingle and best friend were playing when accident occurred
By Shelley Hazen,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 20, 2014 1:31 PM CDT
Best Friend Kills Boy, 12, With Pellet Gun
   (Shutterstock)

A night of fun between two best friends at a sleepover turned deadly when one allegedly accidentally shot the other in the head with a pellet gun, McAlester News-Capital reports. Justin Ingle, 12, died Saturday at a Tulsa, Okla., hospital of head trauma, reports the Raw Story. The incident happened Friday night in the town of Bache. Police say the boy was hit in the temple from only a few feet away by a pellet traveling at 1,250 feet per second, according to KOTV. "This juvenile has got to live with this the rest of his life," the sheriff says, referring to the boy—not being named due to his age—who allegedly fired the shot. He told authorities he didn't think the pellet gun was loaded.

An investigation is ongoing, but so far, authorities believe the shooting was accidental—"horseplay," as the sheriff calls it. "You don’t think of death when you think of pellet or BB guns," the sheriff says, but "this is not your Red Rider standard gun." In the past, it was "not unusual to lose an eye, or something of that effect with a BB gun," but these days, new models are much more powerful and can kill, though such deaths are uncommon, he explains. (Earlier this year, a 7-year-old was accidentally shot and killed by a 5-year-old who was looking for his toy gun.)

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