A 15-year-old teenager was accidentally shot and killed Monday night while visiting a friend in Ashburn Village.
Donald Nicholas Shomaker, an Ashburn resident and a freshman at Broad Run High School known to friends as Nick, died from a single gunshot wound to the chest, said Sheriff Steve Simpson.
Shomaker was killed in the friend’s basement in a home located on the 43900 block of Bruceton Mills Circle.
An Ashburn teenager, 17, whose identity is being withheld because of his age, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and the reckless use of a firearm. As of press time, the teen was being held at the Loudoun County Juvenile Detention Center, awaiting arraignment.
Details are still sketchy about the shooting, Simpson said. Police were called to the house on Bruceton Mills Circle at 6:19 p.m. and upon arriving, discovered Shomaker lying in the basement with a bullet wound. Shomaker was taken to Loudoun Hospital Center where he was pronounced dead.
The 17-year-old suspect and a witness, also 17, were taken into custody for questioning by police. Both the suspect and the witness are believed to have been present in the basement when the shooting occurred. A handgun that investigators believe was used in the shooting was recovered at the scene.
The suspect is a student at the Douglass School, an alternative education facility in Leesburg for students who have difficulty adjusting to the traditional public school. The witness is a student at Broad Run High School, said Dave Franklin, a spokesperson for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
Grief counselors from the county were called into Broad Run High Tuesday to talk with any students affected by the shooting.
Investigators with the sheriff’s office are continuing to investigate the incident, Franklin said.