Teen Shoots Self in Head Playing Russian Roulette

A Santa Ana teen-ager--who reportedly told a group of friends, “Imagine if this gun had a bullet” before he squeezed the trigger in a game of Russian roulette--critically wounded himself when the gun discharged Saturday afternoon, police said.

Miguel (Mike) Angel Guerrero, 18, was rushed to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana after the 3:46 p.m. shooting at his family’s apartment in the 1400 block of French Street, Santa Ana police said. They described his condition as grave.

Guerrero, a construction worker whose wife is seven months pregnant with their first child, was playing with a friend’s .38-caliber revolver, said Renato Chacon, 13, a cousin who witnessed the shooting.

Guerrero, Chacon, Chacon’s brother and the friend were in Guerrero’s bedroom when Guerrero put the gun to his forehead and squeezed the trigger once without it going off, Chacon said.

Chacon was watching television and his brother Roberto, 14, was looking in a mirror when they heard the click from where Guerrero was sitting on a bed. The friend, whose name was not immediately available, told Guerrero to quit playing with the gun before he hurt himself, the Chacon brothers said.

“Mike said: ‘Imagine if this gun had a bullet,’ and he was kind of laughing,” Renato Chacon said. “He clicked the gun and it fired.”

The bullet pierced the right side of Guerrero’s forehead. Upon hearing the gunshot, Guerrero’s brother Pedro ran in from another room and called for an ambulance. Guerrero’s mother, Magdalena, and his sister, Patricia, were both at their job cleaning houses, a family friend said. They rushed to the hospital upon hearing the news and remained there late Saturday night as Guerrero underwent emergency surgery.

Roberto Chacon said he could not explain his cousin’s actions, noting that he had never toyed with guns before and seemed a very stable young man.

“He was just playing around,” Chacon said. “If he survives, it is because God helped him.”