State police and the Westmoreland County coroner are investigating the weekend death of a teenager shot with a gun registered to his neighbor, state Sen. Bob Regola, R-Greensburg.

Louis Farrell, 14, was pronounced dead at 9:35 a.m. Saturday. A family member called police Saturday morning to report the incident.

Investigators found a 9 mm pistol, registered to Mr. Regola, at the scene in a wooded area behind the boy's home on Glenmeade Road in Hempfield.

He died of a single gun shot wound of the head, the coroner's office reported. The coroner has not ruled whether the death was an accident, homicide or suicide.

State police in Greensburg will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. today about the shooting.

The Farrell family declined comment.

Tom Hower, spokesman for the senator, said Mr. Regola has declined comment on the incident.

His office issued a statement, however, that said:

"This is a very difficult time with the tragic loss of an outstanding young man. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family."

Mr. Hower acknowledged the gun used in the shooting is registered to Mr. Regola.

The senator and his wife, Janette, were at a function in Harrisburg Friday night, the time the shooting is believed to have occurred, Mr. Hower said.

Louis was registered in the incoming freshman class at Greensburg Central Catholic High School. In recent years he participated in the Foothills Soccer Club, and he played the sport with Hempfield Recreation.

"He was just a very, very nice boy," recalled Mother Mary Anne, the prioress at the nearby St. Emma Monastery, which owns 115 acres of land in the area, including the dozen or more wooded acres where the boy's body was found.

Mother Mary Anne said Louis and the sons of Mr. Regola -- Bobby, 14, and John Ross, 11 -- appeared on the monastery doorstep two summers ago with an offer to help pull weeds in the property's gardens.

"We have gardens and lots of flower gardens, and this was not just a two-minute enthusiasm," she said. "They came over and weeded for an hour and a half, two hours at a time.

"It's nothing to get kids enthusiastic for five minutes. But they stuck with it, and they came back eight or nine times. And it was hot.

"And then they would see what else had to be done."

When they were finished, Mrs. Regola would pick them up.

"They were always very polite," Mother Mary Anne said. "If they were here at lunchtime, we'd invite them to join the other volunteers. We would give them ice cream, something to drink.

"It was so nice to see young people do that. These were just good, wonderful kids."

Mother Mary Anne said Louis and Bobby returned a couple of times to help out during the summer of 2005, but she hadn't seen them this year.

"Kids get older, they get involved with more things," she said. "It happens even with adult volunteers."

Mother Mary Anne said she learned of Louis' death on Saturday and on Sunday, visited the boy's parents, whom she had never met, to offer her condolences.

On her way, she stopped by one of the garden patches Louis used to tend, where the sunflowers tower over the beans, cucumbers and tomatoes.

"I took them sunflowers from the garden their son had weeded two years ago," she said.

Visitation is today from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Bacha Funeral Home Inc., 516 Stanton St, Greensburg.

The service will be at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Greensburg.

Burial will be in Greensburg Catholic Cemetery.