TOWNVILLE, S.C., Oct. 1 (UPI) — Jacob Hall, the 6-year-old who was shot by a teenager at his South Carolina school on Thursday, died Saturday, according to the Anderson County corner’s office.
Hall suffered a major brain injury due to blood loss after a bullet hit the femoral artery in his leg and was placed on life support. Anderson County Coroner Greg Anderson said Hall died just before 1 p.m. Saturday.
The suspect, a 14-year-old who has not been identified, was taken into custody after the shooting. The teen already faced a murder charge after allegedly fatally shooting his father, Jeffrey Dewitt Osborne, 47, before headed to Townville Elementary School in Townville, S.C., several miles from his home.
The two others wounded, a child and a teacher, have been released from the hospital.
Hall nearly died twice in the hours after he was shot, but doctors were able to revive him, according to a family friend.
In a Facebook post, Hall’s older brother, Gerald Gambrell, mourned the boy’s loss.
“Jacob will be with us forever and always in our hearts. I love you little brother and I can’t wait till the day we meet again,” Gambrell wrote.
Hall’s death makes him the youngest victim of a school shooting since the Sandy Hook massacre where 20 first-graders were killed in 2012.
The group Sandy Hook Promise, which works to prevent gun violence, expressed condolences to Hall’s family and the teachers and students at Townville.
“We know firsthand the anguish his friends, family, teachers and classmates are facing. This didn’t have to happen, it should not have happened, and we are deeply saddened to add Townville, and any town, to the growing list of American communities forever touched by gun violence,” the group said in a statement.
Law enforcement officials said the suspect, who has been charged as a juvenile, was homeschooled and may have been bullied.
