An 8-year-old Las Vegas boy who shot himself in the head last month has entered the record books posthumously as one of the youngest people ever to commit suicide.
The fatal shooting happened on October 10th when neither of the victim’s parents were home, in what was initially believed to have been an accident.
But weeks after the boy’s tragic death, and based on witness testimony, an autopsy and other undisclosed evidence, police and a medical examiner have drawn the same sad conclusion:
He pointed the gun at his own head and died of a self-inflicted bullet wound.
A youngster only 8-years-old intentionally killing himself with a firearm is an extremely troubling development in a country already plagued by too much gun violence. But, thankfully, it's still an extraordinary event.
In fact, kids killing themselves is so rare that U.S. health and law enforcement agencies don’t usually treat such incidents as authentic, since young children still “lack the capability” to understand the “finality” of death.
In the present case, however, Nevada officials believe there is little doubt the boy had intended to put an end to an existence he could no longer bear, and that he understood the terminal consequences of the act he had planned.
A similar incident occurred last winter in Minneapolis in which a 6-year-old foster girl purportedly hung herself with a jump-rope, after penning two short goodbye notes in purple marker saying “I’m sorry” and “I’m sad for what I do.”
Although it was later confirmed that Kendrea Johnson’s death was caused by asphyxiation, the coroner was unable to determine whether the manner in which she died was accidental or an actual suicide.
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