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Cinci dad who mistakenly shot son: He scared me

Posted at 7:42 AM, Jan 12, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-13 09:50:52-05

CINCINNATI -- A teenager is dead Tuesday after his father confused him for a home invader and shot him, police said. 

Georta Mack, 14, was skipping school and snuck back in his home in the 1200 block of Blanchard Avenue through the basement when his dad shot him at about 6:30 a.m., Cincinnati Police Sgt. Joe Briede said.

"I just shot my son by accident," Mack's father told a 911 operator. "He scared me. I thought he was in school. I heard noise and then I went downstairs looking. He jumped out at me. I shot him."

Briede said the father retrieved a handgun when he heard a noise. When he opened the basement door, Mack startled him, made a loud noise and the handgun discharged, police said.

"Oh God," the father repeats in a 911 call obtained by RTV6 sister station WCPO Tuesday.

"Why didn't you go to school?" he can be heard asking his son.

Mack was hit in the front of his neck and struggled to breath during the tense 911 call. The operator directed the father to apply pressure to his son's wound.

Emergency crews took Mack to Cincinnati Children's Hospital where he later died.

"They were very close, they were very close," friend and neighbor Courtney Williams said. "His dad is actually a good guy, too. He was a very good guy."

Mack was a student at Riverview East Academy until last May, according to Chris Wolfe from Cincinnati Public Schools.

The Cincinnati Police Department and the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office are investigating.

Police have not released the father's identity.

WCPO's Jordan Burgess, Krisen Swilley and Julie O'Neill contributed to this report