Oklahoma Teens shoot Australian Baseball player "because they were bored"

[ez bake]

Comments are already pointing out how certain obvious details are left out, so will this devolve into another racial poo-flinging contest? I hope not.

Either way, this is just sickening... and in our back yards here in OK.

http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/state/...sity-baseball-player-christopher-lane-for-fun

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - An Australian baseball player out for a jog in an Oklahoma neighborhood was shot and killed by three "bored" teenagers who decided to kill someone for fun, police said.

Christopher Lane, who was visiting the town of Duncan, where his girlfriend and her family live, had passed a home where the boys were staying and that apparently led to him being gunned down at random, Police Chief Danny Ford said Monday. A 17-year-old in the group has given a detailed confession to police, but investigators haven't found the weapon used in last week's shooting, Ford said.

RELATED: Australian athlete shot to death in Oklahoma (http://bit.ly/154WkA9)

That teen and the others -- ages 15 and 16 -- remain in custody, and Ford said the district attorney is expected to file first-degree murder charges Tuesday. It wasn't known if the three will be charged as adults or juveniles. They are to appear in court Tuesday afternoon.

"They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: `There's our target,"' Ford said. "The boy who has talked to us said, `We were bored and didn't have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody."'

He said they followed the 22-year-old Lane, a student from Melbourne attending college on a baseball scholarship, in a car and shot him in the back before driving off.

Ford told the television station KOCO in Oklahoma City that one of the teens said they shot Lane for "the fun of it."

"He didn't deserve any of this," Lane's girlfriend, Sarah Harper, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "It's heartbreaking that it was such a random choice those guys made that drastically altered so many lives in the process."

Witnesses rushed to help Lane after hearing a shot Friday and seeing him stagger and collapse on a road in Duncan, a south-central Oklahoma town of about 24,000 residents.

"He was face down on the ground and he was shot in the back with a .22 revolver," builder Richard Rhodes told Australian broadcasters near a roadside memorial at the scene. "I had another lady stop and we tried CPR on him. And he passed away right here."

Harper said she and Lane had only returned to the United States from Australia last week.

Lane attended East Central University in Ada, about 85 miles west of Duncan. He started 14 games at catcher last year and was entering his senior year.

"He was an absolute joy to coach," baseball coach Dino Rosato said in a statement issued by the school. "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."

Peter Lane told Australian broadcasters there was no explanation for his son's death.

"It is heartless and to try to understand it is a short way to insanity," he said.

Ford wouldn't say how many times Christopher Lane was shot. Autopsy results are pending.


Read more: http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/state/...player-christopher-lane-for-fun#ixzz2cWv4rII1

http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/state/...sity-baseball-player-christopher-lane-for-fun

 

[ez bake]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/police_australian_player_killed_J8hM1jhw9Us1DltFFWCGQM

That didn't take long

Earlier today, former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer has urged Australian tourists to boycott the US in the wake of the shooting murder of the Melbourne baseball star.
AP
Chris Lane

Mr. Fischer said he was deeply angered by the latest tragedy and said Australia turning their backs on America would help send a stern message about the need for tighter gun control.

 

[ez bake]

Crap. Several sites are already putting the anti-gun spin on it. I guess Chris and his girlfriend joked about the US' lax gun laws.

What do you want to bet, this gun was not a legally owned gun by the teens or their parents?

 

[Spata]

If Obama had three sons?

 

[ez bake]

If Obama had three sons?

They'd be Australian?

 

[Glocktogo]

I didn't even know the race of the suspects until I saw the photos on the NYP article. Based on the statement given, it sounds like race isn't theissue, jut thugs thuggin. What a waste.

Of course Australia is going to use this as an examole of why their strict gun laws are necessary. Like it or not, this does give the US a black eye on the world stage. Anti-gunners will make his name a rally cry and there's not a single damned thing good about what happened or what will come of it.

These three little turds need to be erased from the face of the planet. Not a single trace left.

 

[Spata]

They'd be Australian?

Sure.

 

[ez bake]

I didn't even know the race of the suspects until I saw the photos on the NYP article. Based on the statement given, it sounds like race isn't theissue, jut thugs thuggin. What a waste.

I think that's the point - several news outlets are reporting the story completely race-free which is more than annoying after race was the forefront issue in the Zimmerman/Martin case. I don't get too bent out of shape over it though - I'm never one to holler race-bating but even I'm sort of scratching my head over this one. It has the potential to be a real catalyst.

Of course Australia is going to use this as an examole of why their strict gun laws are necessary. Like it or not, this does give the US a black eye on the world stage. Anti-gunners will make his name a rally cry and there's not a single damned thing good about what happened or what will come of it.

This could be good and bad though - attention to the problems we have here in the US are often doled out by what sounds better to the agenda of the news-agency reporting it (and it happens on both sides). Now we have an incident that one side doesn't want pushed for racial reasons, but is simultaneously foaming-at-the-mouth to push it from a gun-control standpoint.

They typically would have swept this one under the rug - in steps Australia to send it back up to the top of the flag-pole. Now how do you spin it when someone yanked the curtain out from in front of you? Do you continue with "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" or do you face facts and do something positive with it (solutions often start with admitting there's a problem in the first place).

 

[ldp4570]

I didn't even know the race of the suspects until I saw the photos on the NYP article. Based on the statement given, it sounds like race isn't theissue, jut thugs thuggin. What a waste.

Of course Australia is going to use this as an examole of why their strict gun laws are necessary. Like it or not, this does give the US a black eye on the world stage. Anti-gunners will make his name a rally cry and there's not a single damned thing good about what happened or what will come of it.

These three little turds need to be erased from the face of the planet. Not a single trace left.

I couldn't agree more!!!

 

[Blinocac200sx]

If we could throw em in the same room if the teacher who raped his student, do you think justice would kinda sort itself out?