Hours before fatally shooting himself in front of a deputy on U.S. 460 in Elliston early Thursday morning, Jacob Matthew Hooper had accidentally shot and injured a friend, his friends and family said.

The 18-year-old, known to his friends as Jake or JerZey, panicked, they said, and took off walking in the rain.

"He got scared," his mother, Eileen Anderson, said as she gathered with some of her son's friends at the Valley View Mall food court -- one of Hooper's favorite hangouts -- Saturday evening.

Hooper was wanted for skipping out on a trespassing charge and didn't know what would happen to him if he was arrested for the shooting, she said.

But the main reason he took off, she said, was that he couldn't believe he had just hurt someone, although the boy he shot was OK.

"To him, this was the worst thing he could have done," Anderson said. "When someone hurt, he felt it as much as they did."

Hooper, described by his friends and family as a big teddy bear, moved with members of his family to Franklin County from Brick Township, N.J., nearly two years ago. They later moved to Roanoke County.

At 6 feet 4 inches tall and 230 pounds, Hooper made fast friends, said Amber Menke, 15, a student at Roanoke's Patrick Henry High School who said Hooper was her best friend.

"He was so easy to get along with," she said. "He made everybody love him."

Amber said she and Hooper were so close that when their mothers suggested they date, they said the idea was gross. "He called me his cousin," Amber said.

Hooper was like a big brother to Amber's 9-year-old brother, Joseph Davidson, she said.

Joseph didn't like to go to the park because he always got picked on, said his and Amber's mom, Penny Koehler. But when Hooper stayed with her family, he took Joseph to the park near their Stratford Park home every day.

"He said, 'Well they're not going to pick on you no more,' " Koehler said.

Hooper wore such baggy pants, she recalled, that he had to pull them up to run with Joseph in the park.

"He had a tough exterior, and he tried to act tough around his friends and stuff, but at home he just loved being around his family," Hooper's younger sister, 13-year-old Gina Dowd, said by telephone Saturday as she rode to her Roanoke County home with a sister she had been visiting in New Jersey during spring break.

Around New Year's, Gina hurt her foot and had to get stitches. She wasn't supposed to walk on it, so her brother carried her around the house.

"He was just a normal big brother," she said.

"He had a really big heart," said Hooper's older sister, 23-year-old Nikki Hooper of New Jersey. "He just cared about basically everybody that he came across."

Hooper was good with computers and other electronics and could fix nearly anything, she said. He was working toward his GED and planned to take computer classes at Virginia Western Community College while working with his mother's landscaping business.

He loved New Jersey and missed being there, Nikki Hooper said.

"He might not have made the best decisions," she said. "I think he was just trying to find a place, if you know what I mean."

Hooper got into trouble not long after enrolling at Franklin County High School.

He was suspended for a year after taking the pain reliever Percocet, left over from an old prescription, to school. He had hurt himself exercising and planned to take the pill before gym class, Anderson said.

After his suspension, Hooper was charged with trespassing on school property. He had been given permission to attend the school's football games but wasn't supposed to show up at the school while buses were there, which he did, she said.

Hooper was convicted of trespassing in Franklin County and sentenced to 90 days in jail, Anderson said. He was supposed to show up to jail a couple of weeks ago but didn't.

Authorities said he also faced a carnal knowledge charge in Roanoke County. The charge stemmed from his relationship with a 14-year-old girl while he was 17. Anderson said she expected the charge to be dropped.

On top of everything else, accidentally shooting his friend was just too much for Hooper to handle, she said.

The shooting happened at Amber's house, where Hooper was staying while his mom and sister Gina were in New Jersey.

Amber said she saw Hooper playing with a gun and told him to stop. When she heard it go off, she panicked, thinking he'd shot a hole in her bedroom wall.

Only after another boy in the room said he was hurt did anyone, including Hooper, realize someone had been hit, Amber said.

The boy stumbled out of her room and asked Koehler for help. She called 911 and Hooper began apologizing over and over, saying it was an accident.

The boy, whose name Koehler declined to give because he is a minor, has been released from the hospital, she said. The bullet apparently went through his neck into his mouth, where it ricocheted, causing several wounds before coming out his mouth.

"Jake was so upset," Koehler said. "And then he left."

As he walked, Hooper called his mom, his sister Nikki, Amber and Koehler. He made sure his friend was OK and asked them all what he should do.

They told him to turn himself in, that the shooting was clearly an accident and he probably wouldn't be charged with a crime.

But Hooper continued to walk.

"He's looking at, 'Oh my God I just shot one of my best friends, I skipped out on my trespassing charge, what am I going to do?' " Anderson said. "He got scared."

"I think the longer he walked, the sadder he got," Koehler said.

Around midnight, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office began getting calls that someone was walking on U.S. 460 in the Elliston straightaway. A deputy located the walker at 12:23 a.m. -- three minutes after Hooper had talked with his sister -- and asked him for identification, Montgomery County Chief Deputy W.B. Tolley has said.

As is routine, the deputy called dispatchers to check the teen's status through law enforcement data. The deputy was told that Hooper did have outstanding criminal issues.

Before the deputy had a chance to say anything else to the teen, Hooper pulled out a .22-caliber pistol and shot himself in the head, Tolley said.

Anderson said she didn't know her son had a gun and doesn't know where he could have gotten one.

A memorial service is planned for 5 to 7 p.m. today at Oakey's South Chapel on Brambleton Avenue.

Hooper's body will be cremated and his ashes taken to New Jersey.

"That's where he would want to be," his mother said.