Just after leaving his girlfriend's house for a jog, Christopher Lane was shot dead by three teenagers who told police they were just "bored" and killed somebody for a bit of amusement.
Lane, a baseball player from Australia, was visiting his girlfriend Sarah Harper and her family in Duncan, Oklahoma when he passed by a house where the teens were staying. The three boys-ages 15, 16 and 17-then chose Lane as their murder victim, and shot him at random, Police Chief Danny Ford told CBS News on Monday.
"They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: 'There's our target,'" Ford said, according to a detailed confession the 17-year-old in the group gave to investigators. "The boy who has talked to us said, 'We were bored and didn't have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody."
The three reportedly followed Lane, a college student from Melbourne attending East Central University on a baseball scholarship, in a car. They then shot Lane in the back with the small caliber hand gun, and drove away.
"He was face down on the ground and he was shot in the back with a .22 revolver," witness Richard Rhodes said while visiting a memorial site at the scene of the murder. "I had another lady stop and we tried CPR on him. And he passed away right here."
After hearing shots fired, neighbors and witnesses ran outside to help Lane, who had crumpled to the ground of the south-central Oklahoma town.
Police investigating the death of 22-year-old Lane said they have not yet found the weapon used in the shooting.
Girlfriend Sarah Harper told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that this random act of violence has broken her heart.
"He didn't deserve any of this," she said. "...It was such a random choice these guys made that drastically altered so many lives in the process."
After shooting Lane, one of the alleged murderers posted on his Facebook, "Bang. Two drops in two hours."
