Chattanooga police homicide investigators spent early Friday morning searching for the crime scene where two teenagers were shot — one fatally.

But after canvassing the area near the 5600 block of Brainerd Road, where police believed 16-year-old Isaac Robinson and 19-year-old Michael Shadden were shot about 1 a.m., investigators could find no evidence that a shooting occurred there.

That’s when they determined the incident, which left Mr. Robinson dead after being shot in the chest, face, thigh and shoulder, did not occur in the Brainerd area and probably didn’t occur in Chattanooga at all, said Lt. Tim Carroll, head of the Chattanooga Police Department’s major crimes division.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department now is handling the incident, its second homicide case in as many weeks and second of the year, Lt. Carroll said.

Deputy Dusty Stokes, a spokesman for the sheriff’s department, confirmed Friday afternoon that deputies were investigating but he had no additional information.

Lt. Carroll said initial statements provided by Mr. Shadden, who was listed in fair condition at Erlanger hospital Friday afternoon, proved false.

“If they were shot near Brainerd, we would have found blood,” Lt. Carroll said. “And nobody was calling in with shots fired.”

Mr. Shadden told police he and Mr. Robinson, who both lived in the East Chattanooga area, hitched a ride from a man who let them out near Arrowhead Drive in the Brainerd area because the pair were looking for a female Mr. Robinson knew. The pair wandered the area for a couple of hours, Mr. Shadden told police, when they encountered two men, Chattanooga Police Department spokeswoman Lt. Kim Noorbergen said.

According to statements given to police, the pair were purchasing drugs from the men when the deal went bad and one of the men began shooting with a handgun. Mr. Shadden told police that, after being shot, he and Mr. Robinson ran toward Brainerd Road near the Krispy Kreme doughnut store.

Mr. Shadden told police the two were picked up by a motorist and taken to Parkridge East hospital in a white Ford pickup truck, Lt. Noorbergen said. The two then were taken to Erlanger hospital, where Mr. Robinson died about 2:10 a.m., Lt. Carroll said.

Mr. Shadden told police he did not know what street they were on when the shooting occurred.

Major crimes and homicide investigators searched the area around Arrowhead Drive after the incident occurred and again during daylight but could not locate a crime scene, said Sgt. Bill Phillips, head of the homicide division. Police used the 5600 block of Brainerd Road, about two miles from Arrowhead Drive, as the incident location, he said.

“We couldn’t find anything,” Sgt. Phillips said.

Extra school resource officers and counselors spent part of Friday morning at Central High School, where Mr. Robinson was a sophomore, Hamilton County Schools spokeswoman Danielle Clark said.

School officials attempted to support students in their emotional welfare and to create a sense of normalcy, she said.

“We also requested some additional SRO assistance at the school, not because we thought anything was going to happen, but because kids handle grief in different ways,” Ms. Clark said.

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