CINCINNATI -- A dad who police said shot and killed his son after mistaking him for a home intruder Tuesday will not face charges.
"There is only one word for this -- tragedy," said Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters Wednesday morning. "It is impossible to imagine how horrible this father must feel for mistaking his son for an intruder. All of the forensic evidence matches what the father told police, and, therefore, no charges are appropriate."
Georta Mack, 14, was skipping school and snuck back in his home in the 1200 block of Blanchard Avenue through the basement when his 72-year-old 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 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.
Sgt. Joe Briede says the teenager was shot in the neck by his father after he came into the basement. @WCPO
— Kristen Swilley (@KristenSwilley) January 12, 2016
"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.
Authorities did not release the father's identity because no charges were filed.
WCPO's Jordan Burgess, Krisen Swilley and Julie O'Neill contributed to this report
