10-Year-Old Florida Boy Fatally Shoots Himself After Being Sent to Room for Timeout

A 10-year-old Florida boy shot and killed himself Thursday after his mother sent him to a room in their apartment for a timeout, police said.

Fifth-grader Ian Sevostjanov was acting up before school about 8:30 a.m. when he was told to go into another room. That’s where he found a handgun and fatally shot himself with a single bullet, Clearwater police spokesman Rob Shaw said, according to CBS News. His mother, Olga Grusetskaja, 50, “was addressing a behavioral issue” and appears to have been the only one home when the shooting happened, authorities said.

“It’s a tragedy in all respects,” Clearwater Police Chief Dan Slaughter said at a news conference. “It’s a difficult thing. The family is in distress. They were overcome with grief.”

Slaughter said the gun appeared to be legally owned. It’s unclear which room in the apartment the boy was instructed to go into and where the gun was stored. The boy’s parents could not be immediately reached Friday.

“There are things we have to evaluate even if it is an accident,” Slaughter said. “Just because an incident is an accident, that doesn’t mean [there are] not other things that have to be reviewed from a culpable negligence standpoint. There are rules and laws we have to evaluate.”