15-year-old Parma resident Jesse Hayes died on Monday. His family is raising money for funeral costs on gofundme.com (click image to visit page)

  • 15-year-old Parma resident Jesse Hayes died on Monday. His family is raising money for funeral costs on gofundme.com (click image to visit page)

A 15-year-old boy from Parma was shot in the face by his cousin this weekend and died on Monday, Warren Township police chief Don Bishop announced. The “accidental” shooting that killed Jesse Hayes happened in rural Trumbull County on Saturday night, with his 28-year-old cousin pulling the trigger of a 12-gauge shotgun, telling police he didn’t think it was loaded.

Per the Associated Press: “Bishop says the 28-year-old cousin told police he had been talking with Jesse about hunting and had a few beers. He was showing the boy a new shotgun when he pointed it at Jesse and pulled the trigger. He told police he didn’t think it was loaded.”

The Tribune Chronicle reported that Hayes was flown via medical helicopter to Cleveland’s MetroHealth hospital.

According to a family member’s posting on crowdfunding website gofundme.com, the child’s family decided to take him off life support on Monday:

Jesse is a fun loving 15 yr old boy. His family is now dealing with the possibility of making funeral arrangements, and saying goodbye to a child. Jesse was shot in the head and is now on life support, the doctors say he will not recover from his injuries and is a matter of time for his body to shut down. Jesse’s mother is now battling the worst decision of her life to pull the life support for her child. The family has no financial ability to pay for medical expenses or the funeral arrangements. Please help make this awful tragedy a little easier for the family in their time of need.

He was pronounced brain dead yesterday afternoon according to a Facebook post from a women identifying as the child’s relative, who thanked everybody for their prayers, and said “I will never understand why this happened to my baby and I pray that justice for Jessie is done!”

The family is hoping to raise $10,000 for funeral costs using gofundme.com (click here to visit that page). So far, 18 people have raised $1,760.

Hayes was finishing his freshman year at Parma Senior High School, according to his Facebook page.

This article appears in May 6-12, 2015.

Doug Brown is a staff writer at Scene with a passion for public records laws and investigative reporting. A native of Ann Arbor, Mich., he has an M.A. in journalism from the Kent State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a B.A. in political science from Hiram College. Prior to joining Scene, Doug was a contributing writer for Deadspin.com, reporting behind-the-scenes stories about college sports through public records and developing sources. Doug's work as an enterprise reporter for the Daily Kent Stater was recognized by the Cleveland Press Club (2013 Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards), Society of Professional Journalists (regional and national Mark of Excellence Awards), and the Associated Collegiate Press. He spent the summer of 2012 working for the Metro desk of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and spent previous summers working for Outside Bozeman Magazine and Crain's Detroit Business. His website is dougbrown8.com.

13 replies on ““Accidental” Shooting Kills Parma High School Student; Family Raising Money For Funeral”

  2. Are 28-year old “boys” that STUPID these days? I know I’ve got some next door like that. WOW. Parma has become the new Cleveland and worse.

  3. The “accidental” shooting that killed Jesse Hayes happened in rural Trumbull County, not Parma. Read the article.

  4. CheryL915…..read the article before you judge. It didn’t happen in Parma…

  5. Accident ????? Forgetting the part where the cousin left him in the street , never went for help or even called for help . you don’t put a gun in someone’s face and pull the trigger loaded or not . Someone needs to be setting behind bars , praying they will be justice for Jesse .

  6. If the cousin left him in the street and didn’t call 911 why is he not in jail?
    And any Moron knows to NEVER point a gun at anyone and always assume the gun is loaded.
    The police need to look into this!
    Prayers out to the family.

  8. He did not leave him in the street. It happened in a house. And 911 was called immediately. He was reckless and inebriated and should not have been holding a weapon. He will pay for his mistakes and will forever have his life changed. He stole the life of a wonderful 15 year old boy. God has the right to judge. No one else does.

  9. Jesse was a great kid I no him and his brother Kenny I live in Parma Kenny was one of the nicest kid I ever met he lost his dad a lil ways back and him and his brother Jesse was real close now he have to deal wit no brother no dad so let all pray for the family and stop worrying about the cuz because he will get what comeing to him ether by law or bye god but we need to pray for the family cuz they need us the most rip Jesse God got u now

  10. @nourfax Where are u getting yours from ????? He may pay for his mistakes but unless its death it wont b justice for Jesse.

  11. Excuse me, we do not live under Taliban rules, we most certainly have the right to judge. That’s why we have courts, juries, judges, lawyers etc. If we waited for God to handle all of these criminals it would look like Somalia over here. The cousin is an idiot and should be in prison for the next 15-25 years. That poor child’s family is suffering tremendously and our prayers are nice, but action is better. If you are able, donate to their gofundme page, if not, pray.

  13. Unfortunately he will only get 5 years for what he is charged with, reckless homicide. He is behind bars. His preliminary is today. Also he didn’t lie in the street, it was in a house. No one draged him outside and the cops were called immediately. I hope he gets charged with more so his sentence is more, but that isn’t up to me. This was stupidity. Plain and simple.

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