Handgun Used In Teen Deaths Was Stolen: Police

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA — The handgun used in the death of two teens in a New Year's Eve tragedy, was stolen, police say. Police detectives said that Devin Hodges, 15, was showing his friends the handgun on Monday afternoon when he accidentally fired a shot, hitting 17-year-old Chad Carless, according to media reports.

During the course of this investigation, the lead detective learned that the gun used in the homicide was stolen. On Dec. 30 (the day before the homicide and suicide), a man reported that his vehicle was broken into while parked at a home on Coleville Oak Lane in unincorporated Lawrenceville.

According to police, he parked his vehicle around 5:45 p.m. and came back outside around 6:30 p.m. When he approached his vehicle, he saw that the passenger side door was open and his holster was lying on the ground. A flashlight was on the front seat and his glove box was open. The firearm had been stolen from the glove box.

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The detective is still working on this case and the series of events that followed. Anyone with information to share is encouraged to call GCPD detectives at 770-513-5300.

Carless succumbed to his wound and died before help could arrive, the police said. Hodges then turned the gun on himself.

The police responded at about 3:15 p.m. Monday to the 1800 block of Riverlanding Circle near Lawrenceville, a police report stated. Carless, Hodges and two other boys had gathered inside a makeshift shed on the property to look at the gun when it went off, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

A police spokeswoman told the AJC that as officers arrived, they spotted Hodges running between two houses, where he took his own life with the handgun.

The property is in a subdivision of single-family homes outside the city. The shootings were still under investigation Tuesday, the AJC reported. Hodges and Carless were both from Lawrenceville.

Patch staffer Chris Gaudet conrtibuted to this article.

Photo courtesy Gwinnett County Police Department