Police have confirmed that no charges will be brought following the death of a 10-year-old who ended his life after alleged bullying.
It was confirmed that Sammy Teusch - a fourth-grade student at Greenfield-Central Intermediate School in Indiana - tragically took his own life on May 5 after he was found unresponsive in his bedroom by his brother.
He was said to have been experiencing "intense bullying" at school which led to him making the heartbreaking decision to end his life.
On Friday, almost three weeks after the child's death, Greenfield Police Chief Brian Hartman confirmed that there will be no charges pressed at the Hancock County Prosecutor.
"At the very beginning, everybody started saying this was bullying, this was a result of bullying, and I say this with a heavy heart, unfortunately, we do not know the cause of this," Hartman said. "There was no note or no text messages. Sammy didn’t say why he felt he had to do this."
He continued: "We believe he encountered some rough times at school from other kids. I do have statements and facts to back that up. There were also things that happened outside of school.
The Chief also went on to state that these "things" could have impacted Sammy and forced him to take his own life.
"There has probably been an accumulation of things having happened in this child’s life that led up to that traumatic decision he made that day," he added.
The Hancock County coroner ruled Sammy died from "asphyxiation by strangulation".
Hartman also stated that rather than "pointing fingers of blame", the community needs to understand that there is a massive problem.
“We as a community need to understand we have a problem, no matter the reason for this tragic and untimely death,” Hartman explained. “We have children who feel their lives are so bad that it is not worth living. We need to come together and give these children a life worth living."
However, Sammy's father was not impressed with the police department suggesting that there could have been problems in his own life by stating "things happened outside of school."
Speaking to PEOPLE, Sam Teusch said that the police statement "spun a horrible, terrible situation."
"At the end of this day, our son is going to be gone," he told the outlet. "Sunday, it's going to be one month that he is gone [and] here isn't 20 seconds in my life that I don't expect him to run around the corner."
He continued: "This had nothing to do with his home life. That's why he didn't want to go to school. Do you think he would have wanted to stay home if there was bad stuff going on here? No, he wanted to stay home because this was his safe place."
Chief Brian Hartman's comments echo the same sentiments as what was said during Friday's press conference.
"Any time there is a tragic event, we, as a society, want to place blame on someone or something to help take away the pain we are experiencing and get some understanding," he said.
Sammy's father is now turning towards healing though he emphasized that there will be a long journey ahead.
"How do we start healing?" he told PEOPLE. "We've still got an 11-year-old and two 13-year-olds that have to live a happy life somehow. I don't even know how to do that."
A GoFundMe was set up in honor of Sammy and currently stands at more than $74,000.
Our thoughts are with Sammy's loved ones during this really difficult period.
Please remember, if you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.