Oklahoma Teen Accidentally Shoots, Kills Mother Then Takes His Own Life

A teenager accidentally shot and killed his mother in his Oklahoma home. On realizing that he had shot his mom, the 16-year-old went outside and killed himself, police said.

The tragic incident happened last weekend. The teenager was handling a gun in the living room of his family’s home in Del City on Saturday night when it accidentally went off, KFOR reported citing witnesses present at the scene at the time.

The bullet then traveled through a wall and struck the boy’s mother in the head. When he realized that he had shot his mother, the teen ran outside and fatally shot himself, witnesses told police, according to the New York Post.

Del City Officers said they responded to a shooting report at a home near S.E. 15th St. and S. Sunnylane Rd. at 11.22 p.m. on July 31. According to the officers, they found a teen with a gunshot wound to his head lying on the street. A gun was found next to his body, the report said.

When officers went inside the house, they found 36-year-old Stephanie Rowshawne Jennings with a gunshot wound to the head. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The 16-year-old was taken to a hospital but he could not be saved.

“It’s tragic. It boils down to an accidental shooting,” said Major Bradley Rule with the Del City Police Department, according to KFOR.

“To be handling this firearm and then it goes off, I’m sure that was terrifying in and of itself. But then to go around the corner and see the result of it, shooting your own mother, I can’t imagine what he felt,” Rule added.

Police did not release the name of the teen involved in the incident. Officers will continue to investigate the case to confirm that the shooting was accidental. “Just to make sure…there’s not something going on we don’t know about,” Rule said.

Last month, a 7-year-old was accidentally shot by a younger sibling in Florida. The children were playing with a loaded gun when it accidentally went off and critically injured the minor. The caregiver was arrested and charged with child neglect and unsafe storage of a firearm. She told the officers that she kept a loaded gun by the backdoor of their home for personal safety and was asleep when the shooting occurred.