Sumter teen dies after accidental shooting

Sumter police are still trying to figure out how a Sumter teenager got his hands on the gun that killed him but they have determined that his death was the result of an accident.

Seventeen-year-old Ortagease Easterling was still alive when he was found shot in the upper body around 6:15 p.m. Wednesday outside an apartment building on Miller Road, police said in a news release.

His injury, police determined, was accidentally sel-inflicted.

Easterling was taken to a hospital in Columbia where he died Friday morning.

An investigation in the teenager’s death continues.