Teen Playing With Gun Fatally Shoots Self

Seconds after a friend’s warning not to play with a handgun, a Palmdale teen-ager put the revolver he thought was empty to his head and pulled the trigger.

Jason Sanders, 16, died instantly Saturday from a single shot to the head from a .44 magnum revolver he had been waving playfully at two friends, Los Angeles County coroner’s investigator Eugene McDonald said. Authorities said the boy and his friends had been drinking before the shooting, but it was uncertain whether they were intoxicated.

Sheriff’s Deputy Ronald Thomason said Sanders took the gun from the living room of his house in the 3100 block of East Avenue Q-13 about 10:30 p.m. The gun belonged to his mother’s boyfriend, who left it out because he planned to go hunting Sunday morning, Thomason said.

From the living room, Sanders walked to the front steps of the house and pointed the gun in jest at two friends, Shane Patrick Sheahan, 19, of Las Vegas and Darrell Timothy Worelds, 21, of Palmdale. Sanders ordered his friends not to move before he placed the barrel of the gun against his temple and fired, Thomason said.

Sanders, a junior at Desert Winds Continuation School in Lancaster, collapsed on the front steps and was covered by a blanket when deputies arrived. He was declared dead at 10:40 p.m., but coroner’s officials said Sanders died instantly from the shot.

Sheahan reportedly had told Sanders not to play with the gun and urged him to put it away seconds before the fatal shot was fired, Thomason said.