Friends of a Montgomery Village man who was fatally shot last month said the shooting was an accident and he would have never intentionally kill himself.

Emmanuel Anthony Francis, 20, was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound in the bedroom of a friend's house in the 20100 block of Welbeck Terrace in Montgomery Village around 2 a.m. Sept. 22, said Montgomery County Police. His death is classified as undetermined and is under investigation, said Lucille Baur, a police spokeswoman.

Neighbor Michelle Brown, who said she has known Francis since he was a boy, said he was hanging out with her son and one of their friends at her house when he was shot. Francis had loaded a revolver and said it wouldn't go off if fired because the bullet didn't fit, she said. She heard the group laughing and somebody say "don't play like that" before the gunshot, she said, and her son ran out of the room yelling "help me, Manny shot himself."

"Manny would not have shot himself on purpose. It was totally an accident," Brown said. "He was playing with a gun and he knew better."

He had a single gunshot wound on his forehead, she said. His family could not be reached for comment.

Brown's next-door neighbor Aimee Seals called 911 while her neighbors tended to Francis and went to find his family, she said. His mother, who, like Francis, had recently converted to Islam, prayed over his body before he was taken away, she said.

"I remember her saying ‘No crying, that's not what he would've wanted,'" Seals said. "She was so strong."

Francis, one of six children, was born in Jamaica, said Brown, who also emigrated from Jamaica and is friends with Francis' mother. She described him as outgoing and upbeat, a constant fixture on their street, and said he was planning to marry his girlfriend, who also lives in the neighborhood.

"He was just the type of kid who was always smiling," Brown said. "He loved his dogs. His family, his mother, was everything to him."

Francis could always be found around the neighborhood playing basketball, riding bikes and walking his two pit bulls, Seals said.

"The neighborhood just isn't the same without Manny," Brown said.