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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A teenage boy who has been charged in his classmate's shooting death had invited several friends to see the gun just before it went off in a mountainside suburban home and killed the classmate with a single shot to the head, according to court documents filed Monday.
The group had been passing around the .45-caliber revolver in the Cottonwood Heights home on Wednesday, the last day of school. The teenager recently received the stolen gun as a 16th birthday gift from an acquaintance.
"I swear I didn't know the gun was loaded," the teen told police, according to juvenile court documents.
Another Brighton High School student who was at the home told police that he accidentally shot Harley Jarrett, known as an avid skateboarder.
"I was pulling the trigger and it went off," he said.
Both boys were charged Monday with felony receiving stolen property. The teen who brought the gun to the home was charged with misdemeanor reckless endangerment. The second teenager, who told police he fired the shot, was charged with misdemeanor negligent homicide.
The first teenager told police he got the gun from a "kid" who stole it from a home, according to the documents. Police confirmed the gun was stolen from another Cottonwood Heights home on May 24.
Canyons School District spokeswoman Jennifer Toomer-Cook said counselors last week spoke with grieving classmates at the school of 2,200 students.
Police Sgt. Corbett Ford labels the death "a tragic reminder" for gun-owners to lock up their weapons.
"Whether this is a tragedy that could've been prevented, who knows," he said. Had the revolver been locked away, he said, Jarrett "may have been alive today."
In November, two teens in another Salt Lake City suburb died in what police called a murder-suicide involving a stolen gun. The deaths rattled the quiet neighborhood where homicides are rare enough that the Police Department brought in outside agencies to help investigate. No charges have been filed in that case.
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