New Fairfield (AP) — Residents of a Connecticut town want to know what was on the mind of a teenager who left his home at night dressed in black, wearing a mask and carrying a knife before he was fatally shot outside his aunt's house by his father.

Fifteen-year-old Tyler Giuliano died outside the home next door to his in New Fairfield. His father, Jeffrey Giuliano, had gone outside with a gun Thursday when his sister called to say someone was trying to break into her house.

Giuliano saw a masked person dressed all in black and holding a knife. Police say the person came toward Giuliano, and Giuliano shot him, only to be told later that he had killed his own son.

No charges have been filed.

First Selectman John Hodge said Saturday the tragedy has dominated the talk of the town's 14,000 residents who want to know what was on Tyler's mind that night. The teenager was a student at the local high school and a Civil Air Patrol cadet. He had never been in trouble with the law.

"That's hopefully what this investigation is going to reveal. I think we'd all like to know. It's such a tragic story. I think we'd all want to know what was on his mind that night," Hodge told The Associated Press.

"This has dominated everyone's life, by and large everyone's life in town, for the last couple of days," Hodge said. "It's on everyone's mind and everyone says essentially the same thing: that their thoughts and prayers are with the family right now."

The family church invited worshippers and well-wishers to seek spiritual guidance after learning that the father, a popular fifth-grade teacher, unknowingly shot his son to death.

Leaders of the Congregational Church of New Fairfield said in a telephone message it will be open Saturday evening "for a time of prayers and reflection given the tragic incidents of the past week."

"I said it the other day, it's like something that's really out of a bad Hollywood film, the story part," Hodge said. "It seems implausible on a couple of different levels, yet again somehow it's all true."

He said the western Connecticut town has little crime, adding that "I've been in office for eight years and nothing of this magnitude has ever happened."