N.M. Student Dies of Gunshot Wound
A 13-year-old schoolgirl died Saturday from a head wound suffered when a boy the same age shot her at school in the southwestern New Mexico town of Deming, police said.
Aracely Tena died at 2:05 p.m. in Thomason Hospital in El Paso, and police said they were considering changing the attempted murder charge against the boy accused of shooting her on Friday to murder.
“We will be conferring with the district attorney on that [charge],” said Police Chief Michael Carillo. “We are not aware of any motive at this time.”
Carillo said the boy was too young under New Mexico law to be charged as an adult. He said the maximum jail sentence was imprisonment until the boy turns 21.
The accused boy is a fellow student at Deming Middle School who had no record of trouble with police. He is a U.S. citizen but lives in nearby Palomas, just across the border in Mexico, Carillo said.
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