Man, 20, Accidentally Shoots Friend, Then Kills Himself

A 20-year-old Mission Hills man accidentally shot a friend Tuesday while playing with a gun, critically wounding him, and then, overcome by remorse, committed suicide, Los Angeles police said.

Erik Michael Nielson was found dead in the back bathroom of a home in the 16400 block of Donmetz Street when police, answering a report of a shooting, searched the house on the quiet residential street, Detective Tony Foti said.

Nielson’s friend, Ryan Howard Clark, also 20, was in critical condition at Holy Cross Medical Center late Tuesday with a bullet wound to the head, authorities said.

Police said the incident began about 11:30 a.m. when Nielson and another man, who police did not identify, came to Clark’s house with a pistol. Police do not know which of them brought the pistol.

After the three shot at lemons in the back yard for awhile, they went inside, but continued playing with the gun until it went off, Foti said.

Foti said a witness--a woman in the house whom police did not identify--told investigators that immediately after the shooting Nielson was heard screaming, “I can’t believe I shot him.”

While Clark lay bleeding from the head on a couch, the unidentified man left the house, Foti said.

Meanwhile, Nielson went to a bedroom in the back of the house, still carrying the gun, Foti said. He repeatedly said he couldn’t believe he had shot his friend, the woman told Foti.

Investigators said police received an emergency call from the house, placed by a man--apparently Nielson--who told an operator, “I just shot my friend in the head.”

When police arrived about 3:05 p.m. they found Clark critically wounded and Nielson dead, also of a gunshot wound in the head.

Police are looking for the third man to question him, Foti said.

“It’s terrible, just tragic,” said a neighbor who did not want to give his name. “What can you say when something like this happens?” The man said Clark had lived in the neighborhood about two months.