An Australian shot fatally on Friday as he jogged along a road in Duncan, Oklahoma was a college baseball player and overseas student.
Christopher Lane, aged 22, from Melbourne, Australia, died after he was shot in the back by two teenagers. James Francis Edwards Jr, aged just 15, and Chancey Allen Luna, aged 16, have been charged with first-degree murder and are being held without bond .
A third teenager, Michael Dewayne Jones, aged 17, has also been charged by police as an accessory to the murde, after the fact. He was also charged for driving a vehicle while a weapon was discharged. Jones in fact admitted his guilt to the court on Tuesday saying: “I pulled the trigger.”
He was directed to remain silent by the judge though, who informed Jones that the court proceedings yesterday were not to discuss precise details of the shooting incident. The Australian shot by the teenagers died at the scene of the shooting.
Police Chief Dan Ford told reporters that during a number of interviews with the suspects, the oldest boy, Jones, said that he and his friends shot Lane because they were bored, saying they did it: “just for the fun of it.”
The victim, Christopher Lane, gave up pursuing an Australian football career, in favor of moving to America to chase his dream of becoming a baseball star, which he was passionate about. The victim’s girlfriend, Sarah harper, laid a cross next to a streetside memorial in Duncan where he was shot.
What do you think about the fact that the Australian shot by the three bored teenagers was shot “just for fun”? Is life really that boring in Oklahoma? And what do you think the right punishment should be for the bored teenagers? Sound off in the comments feed below.
