Mary Ann Jackson, principal of Peter Howell Elementary School, where 10-year-old Anthony J. Wells was a student. (SAMANTHA M. SAIS/NYTI)
The police identified the boy as Anthony J. Wells, a fifth-grader at Peter Howell Elementary School.
The boy’s parents found him on Tuesday night with a severe gunshot wound to the head in the living room of their home near East Speedway and North Columbus Boulevards, said Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, a spokesman for the Tucson police.
“His parents had ordered a pizza and left with the 2-year-old sister to pick it up,” Pacheco said. “He was told to stay so he could finish his homework.”
The police believe the boy went into a closet in his parents’ bedroom, where the stepfather’s unloaded semiautomatic handgun was stored. They believe he then loaded the gun with ammunition that was also stored in the closet and shot himself in the head, Pacheco said. It was not clear how the boy learned to load the weapon.
The police and emergency crews arrived at the scene around 9:30 p.m. and took the boy to University Medical Center, where he died, Pacheco said
Detectives are investigating to determine whether negligence or recklessness played a role in the shooting but do not expect charges to be filed, Pacheco said.
“There is nothing to indicate that they did anything wrong,” Pacheco said. “If they had left a fully loaded handgun on the coffee table it would have been different.”
At the boy’s single-story home on Wednesday, a tricycle sat on the driveway and an infant carrier was leaning against the side of the house. The boy’s parents said they did not want to comment.
The state’s Child Protective Services agency had investigated accusations of negligence involving the boy in 2004 but did not find any evidence to substantiate them, said Steve Meissner, a spokesman for the agency. He would not provide further details about the case.
Students at the boy’s school, which is a few blocks from his home, were shaken by the death of their classmate and spent much of the day writing letters and making posters in memory of Anthony, said the principal, Mary Ann Jackson.
“He was a good student with lots of friends, and we’re just trying to move on with our day as best as possible,” Jackson said.
Counselors from the Tucson Unified School District were at the school to speak with students and staff members. Jackson also sent a letter home to parents, informing them of the death and sending condolences to Anthony’s family.
A friend and classmate of Anthony, 10-year-old Stephen Downs Jr., said his heart dropped when he heard about the death.
“The principal came in and told us,” Stephen said in an interview at his home on Wednesday afternoon. “I didn’t know what to think. I feel terrible.”
Stephen said he and Anthony liked to spend time together at school talking about science and telling each other knock-knock jokes.
“We laughed at how they’re not funny,” he said.
Throughout the school day, Stephen said he and many of his classmates wept over Anthony’s death. “I never could think of anyone in my class dying,” he said.
Advocates of gun control said the circumstances of Anthony’s death were all too familiar.
In 2006, the latest year for which statistics were available, 763 children age 19 or younger were killed in the United States as a result of accidental gunshot wounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When handguns are kept in a home, it is 22 times as likely that the owner or a family member will be killed than it is that an intruder will be, said Doug Pennington, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a national group that has supported laws to prevent children from gaining access to guns stored in their home.
The group says that Arizona has no laws requiring parents or guardians to shield children from guns, through the use of safety locks, for example.
A version of this article appeared in print on page 8 of the Tucson 2010 edition of The New York Times Student Journalism Institute.