Teen Playing With Gun Fatally Shoots Self in Head

As four of his friends watched in horror, a 16-year-old boy Friday pointed a gun at his head and accidentally shot himself to death, police said.

“For some reason, they were playing with a gun, and he apparently thought it was empty and put it to his head and fired it,” said Sgt. Phil Stufflebean. “I’m sure it was quite a horrible and traumatic experience.”

The victim, whose name was not released Saturday, was in his family’s apartment in the 800 block of Corto Way when the incident occurred at 10:30 p.m. He was in the home with two males from Whittier, ages 20 and 17, and two girls from La Habra, ages 14 and 13.

Neighbor Lettie Bucalstein was in her apartment upstairs when the boy fired the gun.

“I heard the shot, then a girl ran outside screaming that he had shot himself,” Bucalstein said Saturday. “She was saying, ‘I thought he had blanks!’ ”

Before firing the fatal bullet, the boy had already placed the gun to his head and pulled the trigger several times, but police do not believe he was playing a game.

“He had triggered it off several times, and there was at least one round in the otherwise empty gun,” Stufflebean said.

Neighbor Mya Ang said he had heard the group talking loudly as they sat around the apartment.

“Then I heard the girls screaming and everyone was hugging outside,” Ang said. “Next thing I knew, the police were coming.”

The wounded teenager was pronounced dead shortly after he was taken to Friendly Hills Regional Medical Center in La Habra.

The boy’s father was out of town on business, his stepmother was at work and his younger sister was with a grandparent when the shooting occurred. He had moved in with his father less than a year ago, Bucalstein said.

“It’s a very sad thing,” she said. “I would talk to him every once in a while when I saw him out in the yard. His father was trying to give him a home.”

Police said the incident is a grim reminder of the safety precautions that need to be taken when keeping a gun in the home.

“This is an all-too-common and tragic situation,” Stufflebean said. “We just can’t place enough emphasis on the need for safety regarding handguns in the home. [With] as much information that is out about the importance of this, you still have people getting shot while handling a gun.”