17-year-old Garland teen shoots 15-year-old dead, says it was accidental

A 15-year-old was shot in the head by his 17-year-old friend on Tuesday while the two were hanging out.

Garland police say the gunman, Andy Erives, 17, was acting reckless when he shot Alex Ramirez, 15. Erives remains in jail on an upgraded manslaughter charge after Ramirez died from his injuries on Thursday.

According to Garland police, Erives fired the fatal shot from a .38 caliber revolver. Erives reportedly later told investigators was his and he brought it to Ramirez's home in his pocket.

“We saw one of the kids come out and he was holding his face and just saying, 'I can’t believe this just happened,' and then the ambulance came up,” said neighbor Mike Nichols.

Detectives say Erives, his 15-year-old brother and Ramirez were smoking marijuana in the backyard of Ramirez's home when the shooting happened.

An arrest warrant affidavit states Erives "admitted to playing with the revolver and knowing there were at least 2 live rounds in the 5 round cylinder” and that Erives “admitted to pulling the trigger once and the gun not firing and then pointing the gun in the direction of the victim, pulling the trigger a second time and the gun went off and the victim was shot."

Police say Erives ran from the scene to his home located two blocks away.

“He came running because he was scared and he just wanted to say goodbye to his mom before going to jail. That’s why when they found him he was going back to the scene where he shot Alex because he knew it was an accident and it was wrong,” said friend Gabriela Rodriguez.

Rodriguez has been friends with the Erives brothers for years.

“BeBe, the brother, he even told me what happened. He was like, ‘Man it was an accident,’” Rodriguez said.

Erives told detectives he didn't mean to shoot Ramirez and said they were not fighting or arguing before the shooting.

Erives' mother said she's heartbroken about what happened and said the boys were best friends.