WAYNESBURG — The death of a Lincoln County teenager who shot himself in the head over the weekend will be ruled an accident, Coroner Farris Marcum said this morning.
Cody Mesaris, 16, was in his bedroom with two other teenage boys Friday night when his .38-caliber pistol discharged. The circumstances surrounding the shooting were not clear to investigators on Saturday.
“A lot of people around town are saying it was a suicide, but it wasn’t. It was accidental,” Marcum said. “Three boys were just fooling around with a loaded handgun and it went off.”
The shooting occurred shortly after 10 p.m. Friday at the home on Ky. 1247 in Waynesburg that Mesaris shared with his mother. Police interviewed one of the teenagers at the scene, but Kentucky State Police Detective Rodney Wren had been unable to locate the second teen as of Saturday evening.
“Both teenagers have now been interviewed, and their stories are consistent,” Marcum said. “One of them handed the gun to him, and there was a lapse of time — maybe 5 to 10 seconds — and then the gun discharged.”
“We won’t have the full autopsy results for a month, but we’re going to rule it an accidental death. There was no foul play.”
Information about funeral arrangements for Mesaris was unavailable this morning.
