Boy, 10, Who Shot Himself at School Dies

A 10-year-old boy who shot himself in the head in an apparent suicide attempt in a schoolyard was taken off life-support systems Thursday afternoon and died a few minutes later at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

Officials said the boy--whose name was withheld at his parents’ request--fired a single pistol shot into his temple as fellow students filed into class at the 49th Street Elementary School in South-Central Los Angeles on Wednesday morning.

The boy, who had no history of disciplinary problems, reportedly had received a one-day suspension Tuesday for using profanity in the classroom. He had been given a note asking his parents to come to the school Wednesday to discuss his behavior.

“It’s difficult to fathom that a note like that would create this kind of anxiety, unless there was something else bothering him in his personal life or home life,” the school’s principal, Lemuel Chavis, said Wednesday. “I certainly didn’t see this coming, and I don’t think the teacher did, either.”

Investigators said that when the boy went home Tuesday, he apparently did not mention his trouble in class.

Police said the boy apparently found the pistol where his father had hidden it, under a mattress. They said the boy loaded the gun with ammunition he found on the top shelf of a bedroom dresser and stowed the weapon in his backpack before his father drove him to school.

About 7:30 a.m., as his classmates strolled past him into the school, the sobbing boy pressed the .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol to his head and pulled the trigger, witnesses said.

“I’m at a loss for words,” Los Angeles Police Detective John Garcia said. It just kind of makes you shake your head.”