Teen's Gunshot Death Likely a Selfie Gone Wrong

Police say no adults were home when 15-year-old DaMontez Jones shot himself
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 8, 2016 7:45 AM CDT
Teen's Gunshot Death Likely a Selfie Gone Wrong
DaMontez Jones just finished his freshman year at Ritenour High School.   (Facebook)

An attempt at a selfie gone horribly wrong apparently killed a St. Louis-area 15-year-old who fatally shot himself in the chest last week. Local police say DaMontez Jones likely found the loaded and unlocked gun on a top shelf of a bedroom closet, and that it went off on Friday at 7:30pm when his mother and her fiance, who owns the gun, were not home, reports KTVI. His three brothers were in another part of the house and heard the gun go off, but they didn't see exactly what happened to DaMontez, who went by the nickname Tez and had just finished his freshman year of high school.

Over the past 17 months, DaMontez had posted nearly 30 selfies, typically alone in front of a bathroom mirror. And while he posted a cartoon image of a boy holding a gun in each hand in March, he doesn't show or reference guns in any other way, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Parents should spend more time with their kids," says his father, Dennis Jones Sr. "And if they have guns in the house, put a lock on the gun. Police give them out for free." Diane Jones, the boy's paternal grandmother, calls him "real smart" and says he'd recently been baptized, was focused on attending church, and liked to golf. Police are hoping to get photos off the boy's phone and don't anticipate charging his mother's fiance. (This dad recently admitted to accidentally shooting his 4-year-old daughter.)

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