Huntington Beach : Shooting Gallery Death Is Ruled a Suicide
The death of a 19-year-old man who shot himself Thursday night at a public shooting gallery was not an accident but a suicide, the Orange County coroner’s office said on Friday.
The victim, Ricky Son Dang of Huntington Beach, died after shooting himself in the head at 7:44 p.m. at the Firing Line, 17921 Jamestown Lane. Police initially reported the death as an accidental shooting.
But on Friday, authorities said that subsequent investigation determined that the man deliberately shot himself.
Apparent reasons were the young man’s despondence over “education and family problems,” authorities said.
Huntington Beach Police Lt. Charles Poe said Friday that investigators found that Dang went to the shooting gallery Thursday night with several male teen-age friends. Poe said Dang rented a .380-caliber pistol, put it to his head and shot himself. Poe said Dang did not disclose his suicide intentions to his friends and fired the shot with no warning. The young friends “were shocked and stunned,” Poe said.
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