NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A 15-year-old boy in Newport News found himself needing a lot of help Monday.
People typically use flare guns to signal for help, but the teenager was shot in the face with one. His face was wounded and burned along with his hand.
James Banks, a 13-year-old, lives near where the shooting happened. He said he knows the boy who was shot.
“I’m really scared for him. I hope he’s okay,” said Banks.
The Newport News Police Department responded to the shooting at about 12:07 p.m. in the 400 block of Turlington Rd. The victim was walking with a group of young men when he was shot.
Banks said the young men walking with the victim were his friends.
Police are still trying to figure out if the person who fired the gun did it accidentally or on purpose.
Banks’s mom, Brenda Howard, said she was relieved that her son was not outside when the shooting happened.
“I just thought it was a shame that something like that happened to a young child,” said Howard.
Lt. Brian Gleason, Assistant Fire Marshall for the Newport News Police Department said flare guns are dangerous and in some cases, deadly.
On Tuesday afternoon, Gleason demonstrated the intense heat that radiates from a single flare.
“This is burning with intensity, flame temperature in excess of 2000 degrees. If I were to touch that, I would sustain 3rd or 4th-degree burns and I would be sustaining an injury that’s going to be life-long,” said Gleason.
Police have not charged anyone, and officers are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting.