PHOENIX — A 14-year-old boy who was found dead inside an elementary school bathroom in southern Arizona shot himself with a family member's firearm, authorities said Wednesday.
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said in a news release that investigators recovered the weapon in Tuesday's shooting from the bathroom at Coronado Elementary School, located between the towns of Hereford and Sierra Vista. The school serves about 460 students from kindergarten through eigth grade.
The boy hasn't been publicly identified. The sheriff notified the victim's family.
"The Cochise County Sherriff's Office’s thoughts and prayers remain with the 14-year-old victim and his family as well as the staff and students of Coronado Elementary School," the statement said. "The investigation in the case indicates this incident was a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound by the 14-year-old 8th grader."
School officials clarified in a statement the boy was a seventh-grader.
Counselors are at the school for students and staff to help them cope with the incident, the sheriff said.
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The shooting was reported about 9:21 a.m. Tuesday as an active shooter, the sheriff said during a news conference on Tuesday. As a result, both local and federal law enforcement officers arrived at the school to secure the campus, Dannels said.
When deputies searched the campus, they found the boy on a bathroom floor with a gunshot wound, the sheriff said.
Carol Capas, the spokeswoman for the Cochise County Sheriff's Office, said that deputies are still going through evidence and she couldn't say if they have found a suicide note.
She said the sheriff's office is withholding the boy's identity until the investigation is complete.
No charges are pending against the family member who owns the gun, she said.