A senior high school student in Georgia was shot to death while hanging with friends in a backyard, where investigators believe they practiced target shooting, sheriff officials said.
Candace Chrzan, a 17-year-old who studied at Mount Zion High School in Jonesboro, died Tuesday night after being shot at a home in Mount Zion, according to the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office.
“This remains an open and active investigation and all parties involved in this horrible tragedy are currently cooperating,” the office said in a statement on Wednesday.
Investigators are working with prosecutors and have yet to determine whether the charges will be made for the death of the “sweet” promising teenager who picked up her graduation cap and gown earlier this week, according to a report.
“From what we were told, they were just a few friends in the backyard, possibly target practice with a pistol,” Sheriff Ashley Hulsey’s office spokeswoman told WSB-TV. “The kids probably didn’t learn the safety rules with guns they should have learned. And, in the end, it resulted in Candace’s death.”
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Investigators believe the shooting was an accident, but criminal charges for the teenager’s death are possible, Hulsey told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We don’t believe it was intentional,” said Hulsey.
Chrzan, a member of the Mount Zion High School martial band, “left a broken-hearted community behind,” according to an online fundraiser created to help offset the costs of the funeral.
“As we all suffer, it is time for Eagle Nation to stand up and support a family that has always supported us,” wrote organizer Tiffany Cantrell. “We are going to help put this beautiful young woman to rest and give her family peace of mind.”
The sheriff’s officers asked the public to respect the family’s privacy while they mourned the loss of a “bright young soul” and when their classmates returned to school on Thursday.
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Mourning counselors were available to students at the school, ABC News reported.