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A 14-year-old girl was injured and a 15-year-old boy died Monday afternoon in what an Anoka County Sheriff's Office spokesperson called "a tragic, tragic situation."

Police say the girl was shot twice in what now appears to be an accidental shooting at an apartment complex. The boy, police say, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Cmdr. Paul Sommer, spokesperson for the Anoka County Sheriff's Office, had originally said that police were investigating the incident as "an assault-suicide situation." After detectives spoke to the injured girl, who said the gun had gone off accidentally while the boy was playing with it, they determined the shooting had been an accident.

When officers arrived at the apartment complex, on Robinson Drive in Coon Rapids, they found the girl with gunshot wounds to her head and chest inside an apartment. Police soon found the boy dead of a gunshot wound to the head in a cluster of trees nearby.  

"He actually left the apartment complex and he shot himself in the median between the complex and ... a charter high school" nearby, Sommer said.

The girl was taken to Mercy Hospital, and is expected to survive. The boy's mother was present at the time of the shooting. 

Police say they still aren't sure why the boy apparently took his own life.

"At this point, this is just a tragic, tragic situation," Sommer said. "As detectives are doing their work, there are many questions that we have."

Crime, Law and Justice

MPR News Staff

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An Anoka County Sheriff's Office spokesperson called it "a tragic, tragic situation."

One teenager killed, another injured in Coon Rapids shooting

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