A young man told Columbus police he was cleaning his gun when the handgun went off, striking a teenage girl in the forehead and killing her early Tuesday afternoon at an apartment complex in Franklinton, according to court documents.

Columbus homicide detectives say 20-year-old Tejuan Stanley shot the girl around 12:45 p.m. inside a first-floor apartment at Hawthorn Village apartment complex on the 700 block of West Rich Street.

Stanley, whose last known address was on South Richardson Avenue in the Hilltop, was with the girl and others in the apartment leased to an older man who was not home when the gun fired.

Stanley and the others apparently panicked and fled, said Sgt. Edward J. Powell III. After a description of the gunman was sent over police radios, Stanley was identified and arrested at a COTA bus stop at 5505 West Broad Street. Detectives are looking for others who may have witnessed the shooting.

The teenager's identity was still being withheld late Tuesday night pending notification of her family. She is believed to live in Columbus, Powell said.

Police were called at 12:47 p.m. to the apartment complex, where they found the victim suffering from an apparent gunshot wound.

Responding officers rendered aid until Columbus Division of Fire paramedics arrived and continued to try and save her, but they pronounced the girl dead about 10 minutes later.

Stanley has been cooperative, said Powell. According to a probable cause affidavit "He (Stanley) took the gun apart and when he put it back together, he accidentally racked a round into the chamber and did not know he had loaded it."

Stanley was charged with reckless homicide and taken to the Franklin County jail. Reckless homicide in Ohio is defined as recklessly causing the death of another person and requires that the offender knew that their actions could kill someone, according to the Ohio Revised Code.

Upon conviction, the charge is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The apartment complex has traditionally been used for senior housing, according to its website.

Additional details, including why the girl and her assailant were there, were not immediately available.

"This older gentleman was letting her stay there with him for some reason," said Powell.

bbruner@dispatch.com

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dnarciso@dispatch

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: One dead after shooting at Franklinton apartment building