Atlanta teen kills himself accidentally during Instagram Live session

Atlanta Teen Accidentally Shoots Himself To Death On Instagram

If anything was ever properly described as “a gift and a curse” it’s live social media streaming.

Over the past few months we’ve seen a rash of social media suicides that seem to only be increasing.

11Alive reports that a 13-year-old Malachi Hemphill was found dead by his mother and sister after handling a gun on Instagram live:

“I heard a big boom. I couldn’t tell if it was a gun shot or what.”

Shaniqua Stephens had just watched her 13-year-old son take out the trash Monday evening when she heard a noise.

“I just knew that it was something that was wrong,” she said.

She and her daughter ran upstairs and found him. “We kicked in the door. We found him just laying there in a pool of blood,” Stephens recounted. “My daughter screamed and said, ‘Mom turn his phone off!’ As I proceeded to look at his phone he was on Instagram Live.”

Stephens says about “40-50 kids” who had been watching the live stream showed up on her front yard to get the sad news.

To make matters worse, Shaniqua says that she was told that someone watching the stream instructed Malachi to put a clip into the gun. As he was loading the weapon, it went off, killing him instantly.

R.I.P. Malachi Hemphill.

Image via Instagram/Facebook