HIGHLAND — Charges have not yet been filed against a Highland teenager who accidentally shot and fatally wounded a neighbor last week.

Sgt. Brian Gwilliam said the 16-year-old has been released to the custody of his parents. If charges are filed, the case will is expected to work its way through the juvenile court system.

Last Wednesday, police say, the young man was apparently target shooting with a 22-caliber rifle in his back yard.

It appears one bullet missed the target, flew across a garden and passed a couple of rows of trees before striking 20-year-old Joshua Paul Gordon Jones, who was visiting with his fiance in a neighboring yard. Jones died at the American Fork Hospital.

Gwilliam said that while the police believe the boy did not intend to harm his neighbor, the target shooting violated city ordinance.

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Highland's city ordinances do not allow the firing of a gun within 600 feet of a residence.

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