KILLINGLY — A 16-year-old was fatally shot in a Kenneth Drive home Tuesday night and another man was arrested after telling officers he had been fooling around with a rifle when it went off accidentally, police said.

Police had not identified the victim as of Wednesday night.

Kyle Carney, 22, was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter and reckless endangerment. State police said Carney was "recklessly pointing a firearm in the direction of the victim when the rifle discharged, striking the victim in the face."

During an arraignment on Wednesday in Superior Court in Danielson, public defender Ernest Green told the judge Carney has consistently said "this was an accident."

Judge Steven Spellman kept Carney's bail at $500,000 and ordered that Carney be on a mental health watch while in custody.

According to the arrest report, 911 calls about the shooting came in Tuesday night shortly after 7 p.m.

Troopers responded to 84 Kenneth Drive in Killingly and found the 16-year-old unresponsive in an upstairs bedroom. He was taken to Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam, where he was pronounced dead.

Carney maintained that the shooting was an accident, and initially told police he was walking in the hallway near the teen's bedroom, holding his rifle, when it discharged one round, according to the police report.

Carney told officers he then noticed that the victim was slumped over on a bed and realized the teen had been shot, the report says. He said he didn't realize the teen was in the bedroom until after the shooting, the report says.

"It just went off," he told police about the gun.

According to the police report, Carney later asked to talk to the detectives again and said he had not been entirely truthful in the first interview. He told police then that he had been fooling around with the rifle at the time of the shooting, with his hands and fingers moving in the area of the trigger and magazine, the report said.

The medical examiner's office will conduct a post mortem examination of the victim, state police said.

Bail Commissioner Celeste Willard said in court on Wednesday that Carney struggles with mental health and substance abuse problems. She didn't elaborate.

In addition to the manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges, Carney faces charges of disorderly conduct, failure to appear in court and drug possession charges from previous arrests, she said.

In addition, there is a pending case on a docket that she described as "non-disclosable," she said.

Carney also has violated the terms of probation three times, she said.

Green, the public defender, asked that Carney be permitted to wear his glasses in the cellblock because he is legally blind, he said.

Spellman approved the request.

Carney's next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 11.

Carney's ex-girlfriend, Bethany Alexander said outside of court that she has no doubt this was a "horrible, horrible accident."

Alexander also said Carney recently purchased a rifle and had asked her if she wanted to go shooting with him.

Neighbors said on Wednesday that they don't know the family well.

One said she heard the gunshot on Tuesday night. She asked not to be named.

"It sounded like something fell," she said of the shot. She said she realized it was a gun, and went downstairs to tell her mother. Her mother didn't believe her until she heard screaming, she said.

Another neighbor, Pam Caisse, said she was doing laundry when she heard commotion next door. She heard a man who had been living at the house, who she later learned was Kyle Carney, talking on the phone, frantically trying to get help, Caisse said. "I need someone here, he's been shot," Carney said, according to Caisse.

Her husband, Rich Caisse, said he saw the distraught girlfriend of the victim — who stays at the house — crying and vomiting, he said.

Within an hour of the shooting, the victim's girlfriend posted on Facebook: "The vision sticks in my head and drives me insane. ... You wouldn't believe the things I've seen."

Tuesday night wasn't the only time police have been to the house, neighbors said. Troopers have responded to disturbances in the past at 84 Kenneth Drive, they said.

Neighbors said they have heard yelling and loud music at the raised ranch, and also said different people have been living there.

Courant Statt Writer Kelly Glista contributed to this story.