15-year-old boy dies after being shot in Guilford home

Police at a Seaside Avenue home in Guilford Wednesday. Police at a Seaside Avenue home in Guilford Wednesday. Photo: Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close 15-year-old boy dies after being shot in Guilford home 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

GUILFORD — A 15-year-old freshman at Guilford High School died Wednesday afternoon after suffering a gunshot wound inside a house on Seaside Avenue, according to Chief of Police Jeffrey Hutchinson.

Hutchinson identified the shooting victim Wednesday evening as Ethan Song of Guilford, and said Ethan did not live in the house in which the shooting took place but was there with one other youth. He did not identify the other youth, saying he was a juvenile, and didn’t discuss the circumstances under which Ethan was fatally injured.

The other youth was not injured, Hutchinson said. No parents or other adults were at home at the time of the shooting, he said. Police and firefighters were dispatched to the house at about 3:30 p.m.

The house is owned by Robin and Kellie Kessel, according to town assessor’s records; it is opposite Chittenden Park, a stone’s throw from Jacobs Beach.

Hutchinson, who has been a police officer in Guilford for 28 years, said he couldn’t remember the last time the town had a deadly shooting. “Shootings are very uncommon” in Guilford, he said.

“As you can imagine, this is a very tragic event for the town,” Hutchinson said. “We’re going to ask that people respect the families that are involved in this incident right now. We still have a lot of investigating to do. We still have a lot of answers to come up with, as to how this happened and what happened.

“I will say that we’ve been in close contact with the superintendent of the Guilford school system, Dr. Paul Freeman,” Hutchinson said. “He’s asked me to indicate to everybody that there will be school counselors available in the morning for the students.”

In addition, “He’s asking also that news media refrain from showing up at the school there,” Hutchinson said. “As you can imagine, it’s going to be a very difficult day for the kids and he thinks it’s important that their healing comes before that.”

In a subsequent press release, police asked “that the privacy and security of our students be respected, and that they be allowed to grieve and deal with this tragic event without interruption at or around school grounds.

“The Guilford Police Department also requests that any posting on social media applications regarding this incident consider the privacy of the victim and the integrity of the investigation and be limited to supportive messages,” the release read.

As Hutchinson spoke, just after 8 p.m., “We haven’t even been able to process the crime scene yet,” he said. “We still have some work to do on that. ... Process-wise, before we go in that house we need to get a search warrant signed. It takes a lot of work to put that paperwork together. We need prosecutors and judges to sign it.”

When police arrived after getting a call at 3:25 p.m., they found the victim and the other youth, Hutchinson told the New Haven Register.

“We’re just literally in the beginning” of the investigation, he said.

Hutchinson told television crews at the scene that the boy was transported to Yale New Haven Hospital and police were notified shortly thereafter that he had died.

Guilford police requested the assistance of Connecticut State Police investigators to process evidence at the scene, although Guilford police will handle the investigation, Hutchinson said.

An autopsy is expected to be performed on Thursday, Hutchinson said.

mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com