A man from Florida recently learned his fate after he allegedly shot his friend dead by mistake in 2016. Saam Rajaei, who is now 28 years old, became responsible for his high school friend’s death after firing a gun he thought wasn’t loaded. On Tuesday, August 4, Circuit Court Judge Sherri Collins sentenced Rajaei of western Boca Raton, Palm Beach County, Florida, to 10 years in prison for the murder of his 16-year-old friend, James Cartigiano, per WPBF.
Rajaei informed 911, claiming that he didn’t mean to shoot his friend
On January 22, 2016, Rajaei had called 911 to report a shooting incident at a house on Sawpine Drive that left his Cartigiano unresponsive. As per the outlet, the accused reportedly said on the call, “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
When the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the complaint, they found Cartigiano lying on the floor with a bullet in his head. The investigators found that several teens, including the two Olympic Heights High School mates, were involved with “dry firing” an unloaded .38 caliber revolver. While the teens believed that it was an empty weapon, someone allegedly put bullets inside it and left it on the kitchen top, per the outlet.
Rajaei told the investigators it was a mistake
As per the accused, via the outlet, Cartigiano, who came a little late to the gathering, saw the loaded gun and picked it up to try dry firing. When asked by the investigators, Rajaei said that he was trying to get the gun from his friend but “put his finger on the trigger accidentally and shot him.”
Rajaei told the officers that he even tried to inquire why the gun was kept loaded. When the police arrived, there were four teens in the house, including the victim and the accused. The police tried to revive Cartigiano and took him to a nearby hospital, where he died six days after the incident.
The medical examiner’s findings didn’t match Rajaei’s account
After Rajaei was arrested and investigated for the incident, he reportedly changed his earlier statement and claimed that the victim didn’t touch the gun, per The Palm Beach Post. He added that he himself was unaware of the gun’s loaded condition and accidentally took a real shot at Cartigiano…