A high school freshman was killed and another youth was taken into custody early Sunday in a Pataskala shooting that the mayor and school superintendent described as accidental.

Pataskala police released limited details and did not identify the boys.

The shooting occurred at a house on Granville Street around 12:45 a.m., according to Pataskala police and the Licking County sheriff’s office.

Officers arrived to find the teenage boy dead at the scene.

Another boy who police believed was responsible for the shooting was taken into custody.

In a now-deleted post to a Facebook group, Mayor Mike Compton reported an "accidental shooting in the city, involving two juveniles, resulting in one death."

Compton confirmed to The Dispatch what he had written in the deleted Facebook post, but he said he could make no other comments.

In a Facebook post later Sunday, Southwest Licking Schools Superintendent Kasey Perkins referred to a "tragic accident" that left a Watkins Memorial High School freshman dead. She confirmed that her post concerned the fatal shooting.

Counselors and psychologists will be on hand at the high school and middle school Monday to assist students, the superintendent said.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was assisting Pataskala police in the investigation.

A 2-year-old girl was killed in an unrelated shooting in Pataskala on Dec. 14, with the mother saying in a 911 call she believed the victim’s 6-year-old brother had found a gun and shot the girl. Their father has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

rludlow@dispatch.com

@RandyLudlow