A CBS News report out of Oklahoma is tearing the heart out of two continents: police are saying a group of teenagers were bored, wanted someone to die, and thus randomly chose a jogging Australian baseball player to shoot dead in their local neighborhood.
The shooting happened last week, and the boys were charged today with first-degree murder:
2 Oklahoma teens charged in fatal shooting of Australia baseball player, 3rd named as accessory – @AP
— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) August 20, 2013
Police Chief Danny Ford, speaking on Monday, said that Christopher Lane was visiting Duncan, Oklahoma (population 24,000) to spend time with his girlfriend and her family. Lane was a college student attending East Central University on a baseball scholarship. Ford said the oldest suspect told police “they saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: ‘There’s our target… [the suspect claimed] ‘we were bored and didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody…’ [The boys killed Lane for] the fun of it.”
Lane’s father choked back tears while acknowledging that “There’s not gonna be any good to come out of this cause it was just so senseless,” and that trying to understand why this happened would be a “a short way to insanity.” Lane’s girlfriend felt the heartbreaking part was “that it was such a random choice those guys made that drastically altered so many lives in the process.”
In a statement from East Central University, Lane’s baseball coach Dino Rosato said that “Chris was an extremely well-respected teammate. … He set a great example for all of his teammates, but more importantly for the younger players. He was a mature student-athlete who his teammates could look to for advice and support… He was an absolute joy to coach.”
A mother of one of the accused, Jennifer Luna, said in the report that the boys are her son Chancy Luna, James Edwards, and Michael Jones, and all three are in a “wannabe gang” together. Twitter’s reactions have been appropriate, much of which is dedicated to spreading the word of the Christopher Lane Fund:
They should be tried as adults. Worst Thing I have heard, did it cause they were "bored". http://t.co/TjdGvXGTvu
— Jason Bellamy (@jasongbellamy) August 20, 2013
thoughts and prayers go out to Christopher Lane and his family. These senseless acts of violence need to end. #Aussie
— Yogi Roth (@YogiRoth) August 20, 2013
Amazing what can happen when people come together…Goal was reached in a day! Christopher Lane Fund http://t.co/GhUzaKzEYh via @gofundme
— Carlos Spicywiener (@ECURadioGuy) August 20, 2013
RIP Christopher Lane. My prayers are with your family, gf, your team and all who know and love you. #AussieLove pic.twitter.com/1mrGWU9CJc
— CateInVA (@YouWantThatCate) August 20, 2013