Two Oklahoma teenagers who allegedly shot and killed Australian baseball player Christopher Lane were charged with first degree murder today.
The teens allegedly shot Lane in a random drive-by because they were bored and wanted to do something “fun.”
Lane, who was out jogging, was shot in the back with a.22 revolver, which police are still hoping to to recover.
James Edwards, 15, and Chancey Luna, 16, were charged with first-degree murder and will be tried in Stephens County Court as adults. They are being held without bail. The New York Post reports that police apparently believe that Luna pulled the trigger.
Michael Jones, 17, who allegedly drove the vehicle, was charged as an accessory in this horrible crime that occurred in Duncan, Oklahoma. Jones’ bail was set at $1 million.
According to the Herald Sun of Australia, “Stephens County Courthouse heard how one of the boys accused of murdering Lane, 22, danced and laughed as he was taken into a police station to be charged after the killing on Friday. James Edwards, 15, was treating the murder as a joke, [District Attorney Jason] Hicks told the hearing.”
Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Lane, a senior at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, was visiting his girlfriend Sarah Harper in Duncan. Lane was the well-respected starting catcher for the ECU tigers. Lane and Harper had recently returned from a visit to Australia.
The New York Daily News reports that “family and friends on two continents mourned Lane, who gave up pursuit of an Australian football career to pursue his passion for baseball, an American pastime. His girlfriend tearfully laid a cross at a streetside memorial in Duncan, while half a world away, an impromptu memorial grew at the home plate he protected as a catcher on his youth team… His old team, Essendon, scheduled a memorial game for Sunday to raise funds for Lane’s parents as they worked to have their boy’s remains sent home.”
One Australian politician has called for a tourism boycott of the US in response to the Chris Lane murder.
