A 9-year-old boy was shot to death Wednesday in Garfield County, apparently by a teenager, Sheriff Lou Vallario said.
He said the sheriff’s department was summoned to a Battlement Mesa address on East Carson Circle. There, deputies found that the young victim apparently had suffered a .22-caliber gunshot wound to the neck.
His name has not been released.
The circumstances of the shooting were under investigation; it wasn’t immediately determined whether the shooting was accidental or deliberate, Vallario said.
In the absence of that determination, deputies treated the incident as a crime.
Investigators initially were trying to locate the parents of the 14-year-old boy believed to be the shooter in order to get parental consent to question him, Vallario said.
A Denver TV station reported Wednesday night that the teenager, a friend of the victim, was later taken into custody for questioning and has been charged with manslaughter and resisting arrest. The teenager’s name also was not released.
