Three teenagers have been charged in the murder of 22-year-old Christopher Lane.
Lane, an Australian native, was attending college on a baseball scholarship at the East Central University. He was visiting his girlfriend in Duncan, Oklahoma, when he decided to go for a jog. Little did he know that he was about to be the victim of a “senseless” murder.
Danny Ford, chief of Duncan Police Department, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “He apparently was jogging. He went by a residence where these three boys were, they picked him as a target, they went out and got in a vehicle and followed him. Came up from behind and basically shot him in the back with a small caliber weapon, then sped away.”
Prosecutor Jason Hicks called the boys as “thugs” as he described what happened that day saying, Luna was sitting in the back seat of the car when he pulled the trigger on a .22 caliber revolver and shot Lane once in the back. He said that Jones was driving the vehicle and Edwards was riding along in the passenger seat.
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16-year-old, Chancey Allen Luna, and 15-year-old, James Francis Edwards Jr., are being charged as adults with first-degree murder. They are both currently being held without bond. The third teenager, Michael Jones is being charged with accessory as he is the one who was allegedly driving the vehicle. His bond was set at $1 million.
It is reported that Edwards has had previous encounters with the law. “I believe this man is a threat to the community and should not be let out,” Hicks said while requesting no bond for Edwards. “He thinks it’s all a joke.” Police believe that Lane was randomly chosen by the three boys who told police that they shot and killed Lane for “the fun of it” and because they were bored.
Lane’s father can not understand what would make these boys do something like this. He says his son’s death was pointless. “There’s not going to be any good come out of this because it was just so senseless,” he told reporters in Melbourne. “There wasn’t anything he did or could have done. He was an athlete going for a jog like he would do five or six days a week in terms of his training schedule. He was just a kid on the cusp of making his life. To try and understand it is a short way to insanity.”