Teen accidentally shoots student who was a friend at Texas high school, officials say
A Texas high school student is charged in the deadly shooting of a teen classmate Tuesday afternoon near Houston, media outlets report.
The student was shot about 4 p.m. at Bellaire High School in Bellaire, a southwest Houston suburb, KPRC reported. First responders performed CPR and loaded him on a stretcher into an ambulance, the Houston TV station reported.
The student later died, KHOU reported.
Shortly after 7:30 p.m., police arrested a suspect and another person in connection with the case, according to a news release from the city of Bellaire.
The accused student was charged with manslaughter, KHOU reported. . The victim was 19, and the shooter is a 16-year-old, KHOU reported.
The victim was identified by friends as Cesar Cortes, the Houston Chronicle reported. Hundreds of people gathered at a park Wednesday to mourn his death during a vigil, the newspaper reported.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said it appears the shooting was unintentional and that both students were members of the ROTC, The Associated Press reported.
“They were friendly. They were friends,” Ogg said, according to the AP. “Pulling a trigger on a gun, whether you know if it’s loaded or not, is an intentional act. But he did not, based on the evidence we have right now, intend to kill his friend.”
In a statement, Bellaire Mayor Andrew Friedberg wrote that as a parent, he is “positively stricken having to explain to my young children the events of today, and the harsh realities of the world in which they live.”
“I’m shaken to my very core, seeing their innocence abruptly taken from them,” the mayor wrote. “I honestly don’t know how to answer all their questions, or to give them the reassurance they need when I’m not always so sure myself. I can’t help but hold them tighter.”
While faculty and staff worked Wednesday, Bellaire High School students had the day off, the Houston Chronicle reported.
This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 7:14 PM with the headline "Teen accidentally shoots student who was a friend at Texas high school, officials say."