Teen Shot in the Head During Fake Home Invasion Prank

Jesse Rainey, boy shot, Alabama, teenager

A teenager is in critical condition in an Alabama hospital after he was shot in the head by a friend while staging a home invasion prank during a sleepover at an unoccupied rural house.

Jesse Rainey, 15, and seven other guys were spending the weekend at an unoccupied home belonging to one of the boys’ grandmothers, when a few of the boys decided to prank the others by faking the home invasion, said Colbert County Sheriff Ronnie May.

The sheriff told ABC News one of the boys cut the lights to the house and then some of the other guys snuck back inside, wanting their buddies to think there was an intruder.

The teens were trying to find the circuit breaker box when Rainey jumped out of a closet. One of the boys dropped a video game he was playing and shot Rainey in the head with a .38 caliber hand gun.

The teens called 911 at 3:30 a.m. Saturday, but dispatchers couldn’t find the remote home on a map, so the boys had to put Rainey into the bed of a pickup truck and drive him 10 minutes to a local convenience store, where deputies and a medical team met them. They took the boy to Helen Keller Hospital, and he’s been transferred to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, Ala.

May said the shooting was accidental and after he interviewed all the boys and talked with the district attorney’s office, charges won’t be filed. And surprisingly, drugs or alcohol aren’t believed to be a factor.