SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - A young man is dead Tuesday after shooting himself in the head. It happened in the Mount Hope area where he was showing off a handgun to friends.
What started as a joke, has now turned into a very tragic investigation and it all happened in front of a home near Raven St. and Hilltop Dr.
Police say the 20-year-old man was in a park with some female friends just before 10 p.m., and was putting a semi auto 9mm handgun to his head and pulling the trigger as a joke.
The gun did not have a round in the chamber at the time.
The victim and friends walked to a house at the corner of Raven and Hilltop Dr. shortly after, and the victim repeated the joke in the front yard, but this time, the victim pulled the trigger and it went off.
Horrified friends watched the young man collapse to the ground.
Police and paramedics rushed to the scene, but there was nothing they could do, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police say this incident is being investigated as a possible suicide.