Boy, 10, In US Dies After Teenage Friend Shoots Him In Head With Air Rifle

A 10-year-old boy has died after his teenage friend allegedly shot him in the head with an air rifle.

The victim, who has been named as CJ Patton, 10, reportedly died in hospital in Atlanta three days after he was allegedly accidentally shot by his 17-year-old friend Jamarius Walls in the city of Milledgeville, which is located in Baldwin County, in the south-eastern US state of Georgia, on Sunday, 20th February.

Walls, who allegedly shot the young boy with a pellet gun, which is a type of air rifle, has reportedly been arrested and charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter.

CJ Patton, the 10-year old Georgia boy who died after being shot in the head with a pellet gun, in February 2022. (GoFundMe, Brittany Matheny/Newsflash)

His heartbroken friends and family launched a crowdfunding effort on GoFundMe on Thursday 24th February and at the time of writing they had raised USD 2,840 out of a USD 15,000 goal. The crowdfunding post names the boys mother as a woman called Robin, but this has not been independently verified.

The crowdfunding effort was launched by a ‘Brittany Matheny’, who said in the summary of the GoFundMe post: “It breaks my heart to have to say that CJ has gone home to heaven. He passed away yesterday morning at around 10:30 AM. I know that these are some trying times, but I’m asking that we come together as a community and as family and friends to help Robin give her baby a funeral that he deserves.

“Nobody was prepared for this day whatsoever, let alone the high costs of a funeral. As a mother, she is already having to endure the most heartbreaking situation a mother would ever have to go through and my hopes are to take this financial burden off of her completely, be able to focus on putting her son to rest and learning to cope with everyday life all over again.”