Indiana police are questioning a "person of interest" in the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old boy, who police said was shot after he got into a "verbal altercation" with a neighbor who went on a tirade through the neighborhood after his home was burglarized.

The Gary teen, identified as Kobe Jones, was shot nine times on Friday outside his home, about 30 miles south of Chicago, Gary police Sgt. Tom Decanter told NBC News. The person of interest is in custody but was not being named because charges have not yet been filed, Decanter said.

Decanter said the person they are questioning returned home Friday afternoon to find someone had broken into his home and was "visibly upset" as he canvassed the neighborhood, searching for a perpetrator. "Him and the victim apparently got into a verbal altercation, and the shots were fired," Decanter said.

"I was told that my son was laughing and the guy shot him dead," Jones' father, Kaunda Jones said, according to NBC Chicago.

"Your house is burglarized, and that gives you the right to kill someone? I don’t think so," Gary police Lt. Thomas Pawlak said, according to the Chicago Tribune. "It's a tragedy," Pawlak added.

— Elisha Fieldstadt