While police worked around the tree stand in which their 15-year-old relative lay dead, a group of stone-faced men stood and stared across the 100-yards of green field to the edge of the woods, watching the officers work.

The ringing of a cell phone broke the silence. The others barely turned their heads as the boy’s father reached into the front pocket of his blue flannel coat and slowly removed the cell phone as it merrily chirped “We wish you a Merry Christmas.”

The phone went silent as he pressed it to his ear and whispered softly to whoever was on the other end.

The rest of the group returned solemnly to their vigil.

Selma police, Dallas County Sheriff officers and EMS workers were called to County Road 74 Thursday evening to respond to an apparent hunting accident.

They found the body of a 15-year-old local boy still in the tree stand in which he had apparently accidentally killed himself.

Officials requested the boy’s identity not be released until the rest of the family had a chance to be notified.

According to family friend Jeff Barge, who had accompanied the boy and his uncle on the hunting trip, the boy had only been in the stand for 30 minutes or so when he heard the shot.

“I heard the shot, I knew it had to be him because his uncle was left of me, I said (he) got him one, I didn’t think another thing about it,” Barge said.

As evening fell and it began to get dark, Barge and the boy’s uncle came around to pick him up.

“We came back around to the fence over here and we called him, we thought he was kidding with us,” Barge said. “We hollered ‘Come on out,’ but he didn’t say nothing. His uncle said something ain’t right. So we walked across the field to the tripod and we got over there and he was already dead.”

Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Granthum said the shooting is still under investigation. It is routine procedure in this type of incident to conduct a death investigation, however more should be known Friday whether the death will officially be ruled an accident.

An obviously shaken Barge, reflected on how excited the boy had been before going out in the field.

“He said ‘I bought me a grunt today at Wal-Mart,'” Barge said. “He was all excited about it, he had me laughing. He got excited about hunting.”

Barge added they had discussed hunting safety on the way out.

“I said don’t load the gun until you get into the stand,” Barge said. “I don’t understand it.”