A 56-year-old man is in police custody Friday in Irvine in connection with the fatal shooting of an eighth grade student in Irvine.
Christian Douglas Yeager was arrested on child endangerment and criminal storage of a firearm, said Kyle Oldoerp, a spokesman with the Irvine Police Department.
Officers from the Irvine Police Department and paramedics with the Orange County Fire Authority responded at 2:42 p.m. Thursday to a residence in the area of Heathergreen and Weepingwood, north of the San Diego (405) Freeway regarding a juvenile suffering from a gunshot wound. When they arrived, they found the injured teen and immediately began rendering medical aid, but the victim died from what was initially believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Oldoerp said .
The victim did not live at the residence and it was not immediately known if Yeager lived at the home or was related to the victim. Whether the injury was intentional or accidental remains under investigation, the police department said.
The Irvine Police Department is working closely with the Irvine Unified School District and offering support and resources to their students and staff at Southlake Middle School, where the victim was a student, according to Oldoerp.