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PROVO -- The Utah County Attorney has decided to charge a 13-year-old boy who accidentally shot his 16-year-old friend with two crimes in juvenile court.
The shooting happened the evening of March 6. A group of teens were just hanging out when one of them pulled out a gun.
A recording of the 911 call made right after the gun went off captured the chaos. "Somebody has been shot," the caller frantically tells the dispatcher.
The group of teens, including 16-year-old Kaitlin Mikolasky, known as Kat, were at a friend's house when the mother upstairs heard a gunshot.
"It was my son," the woman tells the dispatcher.
"You're son shot her?" the dispatcher asks.
"There was a gun in the closet. There was a bunch of kids downstairs, and I don't know what happened," the woman says.
Police say a 13-year-old pulled out a gun he thought was not loaded, pointed it at Kat and pulled the trigger.
"Yes, she was shot in the face," the woman tells the dispatcher. "I wasn't down here, and all the kids are freaking out. I don't really know what happened."
Police later learned the gun was taken from the boy's grandfather, who lives in a separate residence. It was a .38-caliber Colt, model 1903, semiautomatic gun. The grandfather did not know the gun was missing until after the shooting.
Kat died on the way to the hospital. The Utah County Attorney plans to charge the 13-year-old in juvenile court with stealing a gun and manslaughter. Kat's mother has told KSL she doesn't blame the boy and knows it was an accident.
Kat was a student at Timpview High School. She was laid to rest a week after the shooting.
E-mail: abutterfield@ksl.com
