Three Teens Charged in Shooting of Australian Baseball Player
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Co Rentmeester Inc. / Getty Images(DUNCAN, Okla.) — Prosecutors filed charges Tuesday against three Oklahoma teens accused of killing an Australian baseball player because they were “bored” and “wanted to see someone die.”
Two teenagers, ages 15 and 16 years old, were charged with first-degree murder and were ordered to be held without bond.
A third suspect, age 17, was charged with use of a vehicle in the discharge of weapon and being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.
The teens have not yet entered a plea, according to a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
The suspects followed Chris Lane, 22, as he jogged alongside a road in Duncan, Okla., Friday afternoon, shot him in the back and left him to die on the side of the road, Duncan Police Chief Danny Ford told ABC News.
“They were bored and just wanted to see somebody die,” Ford said.
Lane, who was from Melbourne, Australia, majored in business and finance at East Central University in Ada, Okla., where he also played catcher on the school’s baseball team.
While no one witnessed the shooting, Ford said several people heard a gunshot and reported seeing a black car speeding away from the area.
Authorities used surveillance video from local businesses, Ford said, and noticed a black vehicle had pulled behind a hotel for 11 minutes after the shooting before driving away.
A frantic three hours passed, Ford said, without any sign of the vehicle, until a call came in Friday evening “that there were three juveniles at a house with guns and wanting to kill somebody.”
Ford said officers found three teens in the vehicle, which was parked at a church parking lot near the home.
“They were pretty uncooperative,” Ford said. “[But] after questioning them and getting consent to search the car, we found evidence that made us believe they were involved.”
Ford declined to elaborate on what evidence was found in the car. After the teens were arrested, Ford said the driver, who is 17, told police they were all at the scene of the slaying and that the 16-year-old suspect pulled the trigger.
The killing of Lane has rattled the quiet town of 24,000, where Ford said he couldn’t recall the last time there was a murder.
“I don’t think we average one [murder] a year,” he said. “Basically, we’re a rural Oklahoma community.”
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