By Brenna R. Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

NORTHSIDE - An 18-year-old Northside man has been charged with fatally shooting his 17-year-old sister, a Little Miami High School senior. The teens' mother believes the shooting was an accident.

"They were each other's lives," Kelly Wright said from her Morrow home Sunday night. "They loved each other; it was an accident."

Police say Sean Wright shot Nicole Wright with a shotgun about 10:50 p.m. Saturday inside his Chase Avenue home. After questioning, police charged Sean Wright with murder.

He was being held in the Hamilton County jail Sunday night on $100,000 bail.

"He's on suicide watch," said his mother. "He told me, 'She was my heart, it was an accident. I can't live.' "

Kelly Wright said Nicole, who lived in Morrow with her mother, often visited Sean at the Northside home he shared with their stepsister. The entire Wright family lived in Northside until three years ago, when they moved to Morrow, about 25 miles northeast of Cincinnati in Warren County. Sean and his stepsister stayed and lived with his grandmother until she passed away.

Saturday night, Nicole, Sean and his girlfriend, the siblings' stepsister and her boyfriend were all hanging out at the home when Sean began "messing around" with the shotgun, his mother said. He thought the weapon was unloaded, she said.

Though Cincinnati Police did not release details, the criminal complaint says Sean Wright "did purposely cause the death of Nicole Wright."

Sunday, the large family - including Nicole's five other brothers and sisters and two stepsisters - mourned.

"It's just devastating," Kelly Wright said.

Nicole loved modeling, her mother said.

Last summer she won a modeling contest at Northgate Mall.

"She was beautiful, blue eyes and blond hair, just gorgeous," Wright said.

Teachers and classmates from Little Miami filled the family's home Sunday.

"She has thousands of friends," Wright said. "She was a very popular girl."

After high school Nicole planned to join the Air Force and wanted to become a nurse.

Funeral arrangements had not been completed Sunday.

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E-mail bkelly@enquirer.com