Girl, 14, Arrested In Shooting Of Youth -- Schoolyard Teasing Is Apparent Motive

SEATAC - The shooting of a 15-year-old youth and the subsequent arrest of a 14-year-old girl apparently followed teasing and harassment between the two at school.

The girl apparently showed up at the youth's home, in the 20200 block of 13th Avenue South, with two other girls and shot him with a semiautomatic pistol. The three then fled on foot, authorities said.

The shooting victim, Jason Hood, a junior at Mount Rainier High School, was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center, where he was listed in satisfactory condition today after surgery for a gunshot wound to the chest, a nursing supervisor said.

``We have been able to determine that there has been some type of harassment going on at school between the boy and three girls,'' said county police spokesman Tony Burtt. ``Teasing . . . hair pulling, that kind of thing.''

Three girls, all freshmen at Mount Rainier High, went to Hood's home in the afternoon and when the youth answered the door, one girl pulled out a semiautomatic 9mm pistol and shot him once in the abdomen, Burtt said. The wounded youth called 911 at 2:44 p.m.

Hood's mother, Charlotte Koger, was at work talking to her son, who was on a cordless telephone when the shooting occurred. He went to the door with the phone and was shot while speaking with his mother.

``We were talking and he went to answer the door,'' she said. ``I heard a lot of muffled noise and shooting and then he came back on the phone and said, `Mom, I've been shot, I've been shot.' ''

Koger said she does not know the girl who allegedly shot her son, but that she had heard that Jason and a neighbor boy had been teasing her and they said that she had been teasing them.

``I heard they threw rocks at her, not to hurt her, just the kind of thing kids that age do when they're teasing,'' Koger said. ``But that's no excuse for shooting someone.''

Koger said her son was feeling better this morning although his throat is very dry and it's difficult for him to talk because he hasn't been allowed to drink.

Within an hour after the shooting, the two other girls contacted police and told them where the third girl lived - three blocks from Hood.

Police went to the house and asked her to surrender, and she did. Later, a search warrant produced a weapon police believe was used in the shooting.

The girl, whose name was withheld because of her age, was booked into the King County Youth Detention Center for investigation of assault.

Jennifer Thompson, the suspect's close friend, said her friend used to have a crush on Jason, but that changed after she threw eggs at his house last summer.

After school yesterday the girl went home and got her father's handgun from his bedroom and went to Jason's house, according to Thompson.

-- Information from The Associated Press is included in this article.