In what authorities believe was an accident, a 16-year-old Athens boy died Wednesday after shooting himself in the head while listening to music in a friend's car.

Tremell Barnett was sitting in the back seat of the car in front of his Hollow Ridge Drive home at about 4 p.m., when he began "bumping to the music" that was playing, according to a 21-year-old man who witnessed the shooting and identified himself to Athens-Clarke County police as a good friend of the victim.

"He got particularly into one song and produced a gun," the friend reportedly told police.

The friend said he did not know Barnett was armed or how he obtained the weapon, police said.

"(Barnett) was really getting into the music and kept pointing (the gun) at his own head with his finger on the trigger when he shot himself," the friend reportedly said to police.

The friend raced him to Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center, where police already were waiting to help bring the victim into the emergency room.

Barnett apparently was still alive and then flown by helicopter to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.

Though in shock, the friend who witnessed the shooting remained consistent in telling what happened and there was no evidence to suggest foul play, according to police.

A younger boy believed to be the victim's brother also apparently witnessed the shooting and would not immediately speak with police. Detectives hoped to get a statement from him later.

"Until the autopsy is conducted, we can't completely say this was accidental, but at this time it is being worked as an accidental death," said Epifanio Rodriguez, spokesman for the Athens-Clarke County police Department.

Follow Criminal Justice reporter Joe Johnson at www.facebook.com/JoeJohnsonABH or www.twitter.com/JoeJohnsonABH.