After jumping out of a closet where she had been hiding in order to startle her friend, high school track star Premila Lal, 18, was shot and killed Friday night by 21-year-old Nerrek Daniel Galley in Longmont, Colorado.

"The closet opened and I think she jumped and screamed, and he thought it was an intruder inside the closet, so that's when he pulled the trigger,” Lal’s father Praveen Lal told CBS Denver.

After the shooting, Galley and Lal’s brother, 15, and cousin, 12, carried her to the car and drove her to the hospital where she died shortly after arriving. Galley was subsequently arrested for “actions unrelated to the shooting,” including suspected child abuse, reckless endangerment, and permitting a juvenile to have a firearm.

Longmont Police Commander Jeff Satur confirmed reports that Lal was shot after jumping out of the closet, ultimately characterizing her death as “unintended and extremely tragic."

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