[UPDATED] Teen kills teen while playing with loaded gun in Sangre Grande

THE CHRISTMAS holiday spirit was shattered for a Sangre Grande family after a 15-year-old girl playing with a loaded gun at her family's De Gannes and Jawahir Road went off and killed her 16-year-old relative.

The dead teen was identified as Jeremiah Outram, of Chameleon Boulevard, La Horquetta.

Police said at about 3.45 pm on December 20, the teenagers were at Outram’s home, where they found a gun concealed in a clothes basket.

According to police, the children began playing with the gun. The girl picked it up, it went off, and Outram was shot in the head.

The girl called 999 and officers from the Sangre Grande Police Station responded.

When they arrived the boy was still alive and took him to hospital, but he was pronounced dead at 6.02 pm.

Police found a single spent shell and were guided by the girl, in the presence of a guardian, to a mattress, where they saw blood.

The girl was taken to the Sangre Grande police station with the guardian, pending further enquiries.

Crime scene investigators recovered a spent .40 calibre shell and a Taurus pistol with seven rounds of .40-calibre ammunition. Subsequent investigations revealed no one in the house had  a firearm user’s licence.

A chilling audio recording of the incident was circulated on social media recounting the moments after the gun went off.

In the audio, a woman could be heard screaming, “I am calling for help. Look what they do to the girl’s child!"

Another person shouted: “Why are you so stupid, girl? Look how you have Jerry.”

Another voice was heard asking: “Is he still breathing?”

Grandparents: Don’t give guns to kids

During an interview on December 21, the grandparents of both Outram and the girl warned parents not to give their children guns, not even toy guns as gifts.

The children’s grandmother, who asked not to be named, said she believed the girl thought the gun was a toy.

“Don’t buy toy guns for your children,” she said.

“My grandsons are always behind me, saying, ‘Buy this gun for me,’ and I will tell them, 'No, I’m not buying guns for you.' The other day, they came home with some toys and I saw they had some toy guns in the bags. I threw them in the bush.”

The grandmother said the girl’s mother was in the yard washing when the incident occurred, and she was selling vegetables on Guaico Tamana Road, a short distance away from the house. Her husband was in his garden nearby.

She said Outram, the girl and a 17-year-old male relative were in their room planning to make a live recording for social media.

“They are always jovial and making all kinds of videos on social media. One of the children went to put on a hat, and while he was there she picked up the gun. She asked them if this was real. She said, ‘This ain’t real,’ and it was right there when it went off.”

She said the young girl was in so much shock she ran out of the house screaming: “Oh God! I hope he don’t die!”

She said she and her husband did not know what had happened until the police came.

“When I saw the police pass the first time, I wondered where they were going with all that speed,” the grandfather said. “But when they passed back with Jeremiah, I didn’t know what to do.”

“When I saw them passing with the van, I thought it was my other grandson,” the grandmother said.

“I cried out. I fainted. Since this happened I haven’t stopped crying. I didn’t even get any sleep last night.”

The grandparents described Outram as "a sweet and kind young child."

“He grew up with me from small. He was always quiet. When he got older he went to his mother’s home.

“He really liked football, but he was more into phones and social media. He and his cousin used to fix phones. Anything on a phone you ask for, they can do it. They were handy and creative with the phone. He also liked to ride bikes.”

The grandparents want to know how the gun ended up in the house.

“Where did that gun come from? I was close by. If they found something like that, why didn’t they bring it for me? What’s worse, why were they playing with it?”

Newsday asked whether any of the adults in the home owned the gun. The grandmother said no, describing the girl’s mother as “very strict.”

An autopsy is expected to be done at the Forensic Science Centre in St James.

This story has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post below.

A 15-YEAR-OLD girl is in police custody after accidentally shooting a 16-year-old boy with a gun she found at her Sangre Grande home.

The boy has been identified as Jeremiah Outram, of Chameleon Boulevard, La Horquetta.

Police said at about 3.45 pm on December 20, the girl was at home at De Gannes and Jawahir Road, Guaico Tamana Road, Sangre Grande, when she found a gun in a clothes basket.

The girl started to play with the gun and it went off, hitting Outram in the head. She called 999 and the police responded.

When they arrived they saw the boy was still alive, so they rushed him to hospital.

He was pronounced dead at 6.02 pm at the Sangre Grande District Hospital.

Police were able to recover a single spent shell and was guided by the girl, in the presence of a guardian, to a mattress where they saw blood.

The girl was taken to the Sangre Grande Police Station with the guardian.