On December 31, 2018, 17-year-old Chad Carless, a Black/African American male, was fatally wounded inside a makeshift shed on a residential property along Riverlanding Circle in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Around 3:15 p.m., Carless and a group of other teenage boys were examining a handgun when the weapon was accidentally discharged by 15-year-old Devin Hodges. The single shot struck Carless, who was sitting near Hodges in the confined space of the shed. He died before emergency services arrived despite an immediate 911 call.

Police later reported that Hodges ran between two houses as officers arrived and that he died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators determined the shooting that killed Carless was accidental and found the handgun had been reported stolen from a vehicle in unincorporated Lawrenceville the day before. No arrests were made in Carless’s killing because the person who fired the fatal shot was also deceased.

If anyone knew Chad, the other teenagers who were there, or has information about how the stolen handgun came to be in their possession, please share what is known.