Off-duty college campus cop shoots boy, 14, in the head after he heard a car alarm go off and mistook the teen's cellphone light as muzzle flash from a firearm

An off-duty college campus police officer shot a 14-year-old boy in the head after hearing a car alarm blaring outside his New Orleans home. 

William Daniel Short has not been charged in connection to the shooting outside his Metairie home, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said at a Wednesday press conference. 

Sheriff investigators are consulting with Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office on whether Short should face charges, NOLA.com. 

William Daniel Short has not been charged in connection to the shooting outside his Metairie home, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said at a Wednesday press conference

Short is an officer with Southern University at New Orleans' campus police. He has since been placed on paid administrative leave.

The Sheriff's Office said that Short went outside his home on the 4800 block of Grammar Avenue at around 3.10am on April 17 because he heard a car alarm go off. 

Believing he heard 'criminal activity', Short grabbed his gun and rushed outside. There, he ordered three people to stop where they were. 

Two of the three ran off, leaving the last one where he was with Short. At that moment, the teen received a call that lit his device with a bright light. 

The Sheriff's Office said that Short believed he saw a muzzle flash coming from the boy's hand, which he believed was holding a gun. He fired his gun and the bullet struck the boy in the head.

Short approached the boy and allegedly realized then that he was holding a cell phone. The officer gave the boy CPR and another resident of his home called 911. 

The boy was rushed to a local hospital and his status is currently unknown, although the Sheriff's Office did share that he was still at the hospital as of Wednesday. 

Deputies found the minors who accompanied the teen and learned that a group of five of them had snuck out their homes and were 'joyriding' in a car that belonged to one of their parents. 

The car was parked near Short's home as the group dropped off one of their friends who lived nearby. The three who had been confronted by Short had stayed inside the car with the alarm on. 

They climbed out of the vehicle and tripped the alarm, which alerted Short, the Sheriff's Office said.  

Both Short and the teen are white. 

Prior to joining the campus police department, Short spent 14 years with the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office. He attained the rank of captain before he was fired in September 2017 for failing a drug test. 

He eventually filed a lawsuit seeking to be reinstated, claiming that the drug test gave a false positive for oxycodone and methamphetamine. 

The suit was dismissed by US District Judge Carl Barbier. The decision was upheld by an appellate court.