11-year-old boy is shot accidentally

An 11-year-old boy was killed Wednesday morning in what Bonner County sheriff’s officers say was an accidental shooting at his home northeast of Sandpoint.

Police were called to a house on Grouse Meadows Road at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, where the boy was shot by his 14-year-old brother.

Sheriff’s officials said the shooting appears to be an accident, but released no other details.

“It’s 100 percent an accident. One-hundred percent,” said one officer, who did not wish to be identified. “There is no one in custody.”

Grouse Meadows Road is a short, dead-end stretch of gravel lined with small homesteads set back in the trees where residents often have a horse or two. The tragedy rocked the quiet neighborhood.

“It’s a major loss. This hurts a lot of us,” said Randy Reed, who lives across the road from the house where the shooting occurred. “My sympathy goes to the family.”

The parents, Reed said, are hard-working and friendly. The brothers, often home alone in the summer, were good kids who often wandered up and down the road, playing with other children in the neighborhood.

Philip Lopez, 15, lives down the road from the brothers and frequently hung out with the older of the two. They did everything teenage boys do: played video games, rode bikes, practiced their skateboarding. Lopez was headed down the road to visit his friend Wednesday afternoon and was confused by the crowd around the house.

“I thought they were having some kind of Cub Scout thing – they are both in Cub Scouts. I thought they were having some kind of party with all the yellow tape and all the cars,” Lopez said.

The tape turned out to be police crime scene tape. The cars belonged to deputies and detectives. Then he heard the news.

“This is the kind of stuff you see on TV. You don’t think it will ever really happen. They are a good family. It’s going to be tough” for his friend, Lopez said. “I know he’s going to take it really hard.”

The older brother was clearly distraught and appeared to be in shock while questioned by police, Reed said. “Hopefully, his parents won’t blame him,” Reed said.

Reed said the local fire district did a practice burn on an old house in the neighborhood last summer, an event that drew all the residents to the roadside where they watched the firefighters and talked and got to know each other a little better.

If the family needs any help, Reed said, “all they have to do is ask.”