A teen shot himself in the leg Monday afternoon near a park inside a gated neighborhood in Vista, authorities said.

The shooting, initially reported as an assault, prompted a search for two suspects and a lockdown at a nearby school before investigators learned the boy was wounded by an apparent accidental self-inflicted gunshot, a sheriff’s sergeant said in a statement.

The shooting was reported about 3:45 p.m. near a community park on Paseo Marguerita inside the Sandalwood neighborhood, San Diego Sheriff’s Lt. Steve Bodine said.

Deputies arrived to find the injured teen near the small pond at the park with a single gunshot to his leg, the sheriff’s sergeant said. The deputies applied a tourniquet until medics arrived.


Medics airlifted the boy, whose exact age was not released, to Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, and he was later taken to UC San Diego Medical Center, the sheriff’s sergeant said in a statement.

While the boy was taken from the scene, deputies searched the area with a helicopter, and a tracking dog from the Carlsbad Police Department was deployed, the sheriff’s sergeant said. Deputies were given a description of two possible suspects, including specific clothing items they were supposedly wearing.

Authorities also locked down Guajome Park Academy, a nearby charter school, officials said.

But during their investigation at the scene and at the hospital, deputies learned the shooting appeared to be accident and self-inflicted, the sergeant said.