After three teenagers began ringing doorbells then running off on New Year’s day, one Oklahoma homeowner decided to open fire on the kids when they arrived at his home, striking one 14-year-old several times.

The shooter has not been arrested at this time, and the teen is now out of surgery.

Police said the homeowner came out to his front yard and started firing.

NewsOn6 reports:

The case has been handed over to the district attorney who is looking into whether the shooting was justified.

The call went out as a home invasion, but when police got to the scene they quickly heard a different story. Police said the three boys did not try to break into the home.

“Currently, the investigation suggests that the juveniles were engaged in neighborhood pranks and not attempting to break into the residence,” said Chief of Police Steven W. Lemmings.

Cole Peyton is a freshman at Pryor High School. He’s a football player, a wrestler and on the Honor Roll.

Pryor Police said he and two friends were walking through Peyton’s neighborhood around 1:30 New Year’s morning – ringing some doorbells and running off – when the prank resulted in gunshots.

Samantha Perry, a nearby neighbor, said, “We saw three kids walking down by the newer houses. It was kind of odd, but didn’t think anything of it.”

Perry lives just down the street from where the shooting took place. She recalled seeing the teens earlier in the night.

Perry didn’t hear the gunfire but she did see the sirens.

“I mean, that’s just kids being kids right there, I don’t think there should’ve been anything like that involved,” Perry said.

“The investigation now centers around whether the homeowner’s use of deadly force was lawful or illegal. No arrests have been made at this point,” Chief Lemmings said.

Lemmings said the teenagers were trespassing on private property.

Peyton’s mother remains by her son’s side at a Tulsa hospital.

The teen told his mother that the man yelled, “Hey,” then shot him in the back, to which he yelled to his friends, “Run!”

Peyton suffered a gunshot his arm and another bullet punctured his liver, then went through his body.

Peyton is a a football player, a wrestler and on the Honor Roll at school.

The shooting was initially called in as a home invasion, but when police arrived on the scene, a different story unfolded.

The three teenagers did not try to break into the man’s home.

“Currently, the investigation suggests that the juveniles were engaged in neighborhood pranks and not attempting to break into the residence,” said Chief of Police Steven W. Lemmings.

Peyton was shot for being a teenager on New Year’s Day, pulling a prank. It’s a thing kids do and have always done. It’s a tradition going back as far as I can remember.

The first child shooting of 2016 occurred only nine minutes past midnight as the girl walked out of church. The girl is only nine-years-old.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.