19-year old Cesar Cortes was accidentally shot and killed today at Bellaire High School, just outside of Houston, Texas.  The shooter was his 16-year old friend, a boy who has not been identified because of his age. 

 According to authorities, both the shooter and Cortes were members of the High School’s JROTC program.  The younger boy was apparently showing Cortes his semi-automatic handgun in a classroom.   Unaware that the gun was loaded, the boy pulled the trigger and unintentionally shot Cortes. 

The shooter was charged with manslaughter. According to District Attorney Kim Ogg, “[t]his is not an accident because 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.”

“This is a regular kid, evidently, who is now a violent offender,” Ogg said of the shooter. “Whether he meant to be violent or not, he killed somebody. And that somebody was a son, and a student, and a friend, and it’s our community’s collective loss.”  

Classes were canceled on Wednesday, but will resume on Thursday. All backpacks and bags will be searched. “Our culture in Texas, it embraces firearms. There’s a lot of guns in Texas,” District Attorney Ogg said.

Mr. Cortes had already enlisted in the army.  He was described as dedicated to a military career.  “He really was your typical kid with big dreams of being in the Army and serving his country,” Mr. Cortes’s uncle Cesar Diaz said. “He really felt he could make a difference.”

Sources:

John Bacon, “’They Were Friends’: Texas Teen Mistakenly Shot, Killed ROTC Member in Class, Officials Say,” USA Today (January 16, 2020).

Neil Vigdor, “Fatal Shooting at Texas School Was Unintended, Prosecutor Says,” The New York Times (January 15, 2020).