Man Shoots Self In Suicide Attempt, Murders Girlfriend Accidentally With Same Bullet


Investigators in Alaska believe that the bullet fired by a man in an apparent suicide attempt, somehow bizarrely hit his girlfriend in the chest and instead murdered her, and not its intended target.

Anchorage native Victor Sibson reportedly killed his partner of six years, 22-year-old Brittany-Mae Haag, in April of this year with a single bullet that is being theorized by detectives in the state as first traveling across the skull of the 21-year-old Sibson, prior to making its way into Haag’s body, according to Oxygen’s Crime Time blog.

“[The police] told me that it was a shot from Victor,” Haag’s mother, Sheila Lopez, relayed to CBS affiliate KTVA, “that he shot my daughter.”

By her own admission, Ms. Lopez initially took that description of Brittany-Mae’s death to mean that Victor had apparently shot her daughter as part of a half-reneged murder-suicide act.

However, now investigators believe that it may have all been just a tragic accident on behalf of a despondent Sibson.

“Haag’s family now knows investigators have a new theory [regarding Brittany-Mae’s murder],” writers for KTLA explain.

“They believe a single shot traveled through Sibson’s skull and into Haag’s chest as she tried to save him.”

In other words, Brittany-Mae may have died not as his victim, but as Sibson’s hero, of sorts.

“[Like] my daughter, I would [probably] do the same thing, too,” Ms. Lopez woefully admitted.

“If someone was trying to kill [themselves], I would go and try to stop them, and I know that that’s what she would do.”

Chelsea Hartman, Brittany-Mae’s sister, would later relay that Victor often showered her sibling with love and affection despite his supposed feelings about himself, and never once led anyone to believe that he treated Brittany-Mae with anything but respect and adoration.

“They always seemed [so] happy. Always hugging, always kissing, always for each other. There was no greater love than what they had,” Chelsea said.

To a degree, Victor also showed his girlfriend’s mother how much he cared for her, as well.

“I was hurt [by what he did] because Victor has been part of our family,” Ms. Lopez added, further saying that that he often referred to her as “Mom.”

Despite the previous warmth of her attachment to Victor, however; Ms. Lopez now, understandably, feels a bit different about the man who potentially could’ve, one day, been her son-in-law.

“I’m very angry [and] that anger will never go away,” she remarked.

Chelsea is also admittedly conflicted on how to accept the idea of Victor somehow surviving his suicide and incidentally, becoming her sister’s accidental murderer in the process.

Investigators in Alaska believe the single bullet fired by a man attempting suicide, accidentally murdered his girlfriend instead of its intended target. [Image by csabacz/iStock]

“I think a lot of it is still hard to grasp of how is it just one bullet. How does it go through one person and then [another] person, and kill the second person” she questioned.

“It’s just not fair.”

Both Brittany-Mae and Victor appeared to initially survive their injuries in the April 19 incident, as Alaska Dispatch News notes that Haag was able to reach out to a neighbor to contact authorities. Nonetheless, “Haag died later that morning” at a nearby hospital, the site states, “and Sibson was treated for life-threatening injuries.”

As a way to honor Brittany-Mae’s life and hopeful goal of being a different kind of hero one day — namely, a veterinarian — Ms. Lopez allowed some of her daughter’s skin to be removed postmortem and given to victims of Anchorage’s recent Royal Suite Apartment fire.

She also implored others who are thinking of taking their life to consider that suicide often affects more than just one “victim.”

“[Suicide] affects a whole bunch of different families, whoever’s around that person,” Ms. Lopez stated.

“Just get help.”

At his first court appearance last Thursday, May 25, Sibson, wearing a protective helmet to cover his injuries from the suicide attempt, entered a plea of “not guilty” on second-degree murder charges regarding Brittany-Mae’s accidental death.

[Featured Image by Anchorage Police Dept.]

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