Deputies: Teen shot in chest playing game at Denver mobile home

DENVER, N.C. — A Lincoln County teenager shot while playing with friends is home from the hospital and recovering.

The shooting happened around 6 p.m. Sunday on Campground Road in Denver. Deputies said the juvenile was taken to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte after being shot in the chest.

Deputies told Channel 9 that the boys were playing a game when one teen fired a shotgun. The blast grazed the teen's chest.

Channel 9 spoke with the mother of the boy who ran to a neighbor's house to call 911.

“I'm so proud of him for that, because it could have saved that little boy's life,” said Tammy Baker.

She said her son was playing with four other boys inside a mobile home and a child picked up a gun and pulled the trigger.

"It freaked me out,” Baker said. “I was scared. It could have been my kid."

Detectives said the teens were playing a game they described as "trying to get through the door into the mobile home."

A 15-year-old boy entered the mobile home when a 14-year-old boy fired a shot from a .12-gauge shotgun, deputies said.

The gunfire from about three feet away grazed the teen’s chest, went through the wall of the mobile home and into an outbuilding, officials said.

Deputies said there were no adults at the home when the incident happened.

The Lincoln County sheriff said it has notified the Juvenile Justice Office about the incident.

The father of a 14-year-old teen, Jerry Lee McVey, 49, was served with a criminal summons in connection with the shooting. He is facing one misdemeanor count of storage of firearms to protect minors and is scheduled to appear in Lincoln County District Court Nov. 17.

Cox Media Group