GREENSBURG, Pa. -- A 14-year-old boy found dead with state Sen. Bob Regola's gun lying nearby committed suicide, and no charges should be filed in the case, the Westmoreland County coroner said Thursday.

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Louis Farrell was found shot July 22 in the woods behind his Hempfield Township home, next door to the Regolas, with the senator's gun beside his body, state police said.

Testimony was heard at a two-day inquest last month to determine whether the shooting was a homicide, suicide or accident.

"Although it appears that Louis Farrell lacked any motive to harm himself, the only conclusion that I can draw from the physical and forensic evidence is that Lou took his own life," Coroner Ken Bacha said Thursday. "Therefore, I have ruled the death of Louis Farrell a suicide. Furthermore, I recommend that no charges be filed for causing Louis Farrell's death."

Despite Bacha's recommendation, District Attorney John Peck's office must make the call if any charges should be filed. That decision won't come for at least a week, Peck said.

Regola has said neither he nor his 16-year-old son, Bobby, had anything to do with the shooting of Farrell, who was friends with Bobby Regola.

The senator was in Harrisburg when Farrell was shot, police said.

Farrell had a key to the Regolas' home because he was watching their dogs while the senator was out of town, police said.

The Regolas' attorney said the senator's gun was stored at home in accordance with state law.

But the inquest hearing officer made it clear he doesn't believe Regola's insistence under oath that the senator kept the gun in his own room and not in the room of his son.

"My finding is that the gun was entrusted to Bobby, and that Louis Farrell took the gun from Bobby's room," said inquest hearing officer Thomas Farrell.

"We're somewhat perplexed by the determinations," said Regola's attorney, Charles Porter. "You can make factual determinations based on facts. You can't make factual determinations based on speculation."

"We have a constitutional right to bear and possess guns," said Porter. "The testimony is, this gun was lawfully in his room, in a case that's consistent with what the law requires. And to say that someone may go in and steal your gun and now you're going to be potentially prosecuted for that, it's just not what the law is meant to be."

But an attorney for the Farrells said testimony from the inquest shows that at least some charges are warranted against Sen. Regola.

"Based on that analysis, gun charges against the senator should be brought," said Farrell family attorney Jon Perry. "They should have been brought seven months ago. And now we have a finding by inquest that the senator was reckless with his gun, and that the gun was used to end Louie's life, and I have yet to hear any responsibilty level of remorse on the senator for those actions."

At the inquest, two state troopers testified that the senator told them the gun had been kept in Bobby's room until a couple of months before the shooting.

A friend of both boys testified at the inquest that he saw the gun in Bobby Regola's room a year or two before the shooting, and that Bobby Regola showed him and Farrell some ammunition.

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