Two teenagers were charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a college baseball player out for a jog in Oklahoma — a crime that one teen said they carried out simply because they were bored, according
Oklahoma teens say they shot and killed an Australian baseball player because they were "bored", according to police. KPDX's Lindsey Wopschall reports.
James Francis Edwards Jr., 15, and Chancey Allen Luna, 16, were charged with murder. A third teenager, Michael Dewayne Jones, 17, was charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact and with firing a weapon. All were charged as adults, according to the Stephens County District Attorney’s Office.
The charges were unveiled at a hearing in Duncan, Okla. The ballplayer, Christopher Lane, was visiting the town, where his girlfriend lives, the police chief told The Associated Press. He passed a home where the teens were staying and was gunned down at random, the chief said.
If convicted of first-degree murder, the suspects could face life in prison.
“They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: ‘There’s our target,’” the chief, Danny Ford, told the AP. “The boy who has talked to us said, ‘We were bored and didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody.’”
Lane, 22, is from Australia but was in Oklahoma playing baseball. He was a rising senior at East Central University in Ada, Okla., a catcher who started 14 games and hit .250 for the Tigers this season, according to the school’s athletics website.
Witnesses told Australian television that Lane staggered and collapsed on the road after he was shot in the back with a .22-caliber revolver on Friday afternoon.
Lane’s father, Peter, said that the killing was “heartless, and to try to understand it is a short way to insanity.”
“The fact that something that shouldn’t have happened has happened — it’s the fact that somebody we all love so much is not going to come home,” he said from Australia in video aired by KFOR, the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City.
Lane's girlfriend, Sarah Harper, visited the street where he was gunned down. A memorial with flowers had sprung

“I don’t really care what happens to them,” she said of the accused in an interview with 9 News of Australia. “I feel like if they don’t get what they deserve now and in the present, they will eternally. They’re just evil people.”
Jennifer Luna, who identified herself as the mother of Chancey Luna, said her son should be punished if he was involved.
In a tearful interview with reporters, she addressed the parents of the dead ballplayer: “I wouldn’t want to be in that position that they’re in right now. I’m always on my kids. I always tell them: If I lost y’all, I wouldn’t be able to live.”
The autopsy on Lane was pending, the AP reported.
The three teens are being held in individual cells at the Stephens County jail, Sheriff Wayne McKinney told NBC News.
He said that there has been an escalation in major crimes committed by people under 18 in recent years in Stephens County, a rural ranching and farming community about an hour and a half outside Oklahoma City.
Also in the jail are a teen accused of murdering his 16-year-old girlfriend and a man just over 18 accused of killing a store attendant, he said.
“That is alarming that we’re seeing those type of crimes,” he said in a telephone interview. “I don’t think it’s unique. It’s something we’re starting to see nationwide.”
The two teens charged with murder were being held without bail; the bail for Jones was set at $1 million.
State Department spokesman Maria Harf on Tuesday told reporters the United States is "deeply saddened" to hear about the death of Australian Lane in Oklahoma.
"This is clearly a tragic death and we extend our condolences to the family and the loved ones," Harf said. "We understand that local authorities are focused on bringing those responsible to justice. Clearly, we would support that."
Jeff Black of NBC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

8/21/2013 8:21:42 AM

in other news,

8/21/2013 8:23:42 AM

Weird, this is a pic of one of the guys:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/man-who-dobbed-in-suspects-accused-of-murdering-melbourne-baseball-player-chris-lane-says-his-son-was-next/story-fni0fiyv-1226700172461

8/21/2013 9:56:52 AM

can someone translate wtf that story is about

8/21/2013 10:04:08 AM

3 wannabe crips did a drive-by and killed an aussie because they were bored.

8/21/2013 10:07:21 AM

Why is Australian included in the title? It would be more useful advice without it.

8/21/2013 10:07:47 AM

It's a parody of the Zimmerman/Martin thread title duh

8/21/2013 10:10:37 AM

^^ and "dobbed in" means what?

8/21/2013 10:11:09 AM

but why is he wearing red if he wants to be a crip?

[Edited on August 21, 2013 at 10:12 AM. Reason : dobbed is an australian word which means to report to the police (google)]

8/21/2013 10:11:20 AM

if obama had a son he would look just like that murder suspect

[Edited on August 21, 2013 at 10:16 AM. Reason : w]

8/21/2013 10:13:09 AM

in fact, that could have been Obama when he was younger

-thing that will be said on twitter in regards to this story

8/21/2013 10:14:34 AM

also "Wait, I thought it was against the law for minors to own guns" or some variation of that. And something about the ACLU and Jackson and Sharpton. And I'm sure Obamacare has some part in this tragedy.

8/21/2013 10:19:38 AM

the bored teen prevailed?

8/21/2013 10:23:03 AM

So now that we have a nationally televised case of revenge (or close enough), all the Trayvon controversy should go away now right?

We square?

8/21/2013 10:29:41 AM

will this be tried as a hate crime?

8/21/2013 10:31:47 AM

Dont be silly.

Nobody hates Australians.

8/21/2013 10:32:39 AM

Can't tell on my phone but is that an NC State shirt?

8/21/2013 10:35:28 AM

Justice for Christopher

I wonder if any rappers will get a tattoo of his face in honor of him

8/21/2013 10:38:15 AM

^^yeah. I'm not sure why a Crip in Oklahoma would have one though.

^haha, yes. i'm sure that'll be another thing that will be tweeted a lot in the next few weeks. But i think i heard that Keith Urban said he was gonig to get a tattoo of Christopher.

8/21/2013 10:42:59 AM

Quote :

"So now that we have a nationally televised case of revenge (or close enough), all the Trayvon controversy should go away now right? We square?"

wat

8/21/2013 10:44:02 AM

And I thought I was the only one with NC State gear out here... It has been a complete media circus around here for the last few days. The interviews with the suspects' parents and the victim's parents and girlfriend have been depressing.

8/21/2013 10:51:19 AM

Go Pack?

8/21/2013 11:00:33 AM

I heard that the kids had been watching the Road Warrior before this happened.

8/21/2013 11:02:10 AM

Makes sense.

Mel Gibson is a nut after all.

8/21/2013 11:19:10 AM

am I the only one who is a bit hesitant to buy the narrative that the police are offering?

I mean it makes for a damn nice headline, but we don't know shit about any of the facts

8/21/2013 12:17:39 PM

I still want to know why he's wearing an NCSU jersey.

8/21/2013 12:21:25 PM

they gave those out in Africa after we lost the Super Bowl NBA Finals Orange Bowl NIT Championship Jimmy V Classic

8/21/2013 12:37:59 PM

the republicans are going to blame the dead man for being an immigrant

8/21/2013 1:38:30 PM

Quote :

"am I the only one who is a bit hesitant to buy the narrative that the police are offering? "

it's a fact that they shot and killed him, right?

8/21/2013 2:23:20 PM

that's not the point I was going for

the "they shot them out of boredom" narrative, which is the only reason this story has become a national story

8/21/2013 2:53:15 PM

I thought it was fairly common for potential gang members to randomly murder someone "just because".

8/21/2013 2:55:52 PM

a fairly common urban legend that isn't actually that common

8/21/2013 2:56:50 PM

i know it's not as common as some people think, but what do you base that on?

8/21/2013 2:57:44 PM

pearl-clutching, scared white people

8/21/2013 3:00:45 PM

so you really don't know

8/21/2013 3:03:38 PM

that's the actual reason why, scared white people

8/21/2013 3:04:30 PM

jamesakabug
?@JAMESAKABUG
90% of white ppl are nasty. #HATE THEM

8/21/2013 3:09:23 PM

Quote :

"the "they shot them out of boredom" narrative"

Since one of the suspects already admitted that they decided to kill him b/c they were bored, yeah I think we should believe it

8/21/2013 3:32:56 PM

Not saying it's the case but, if it was gang initiation do you think they would admit that?

8/21/2013 3:38:43 PM

I see it didn't take long for Piers Morgan to pick up his anti-gun agenda.

What he doesn't realize is that people such as the accused murderers are exactly why law abiding citizens in America are so adamant about keeping their second amendment rights. Thugs will always be able to beat, stab, or otherwise maim people to death. These kids could have run him over in the car they were driving or hit him in the head with a baseball bat if they didn't have access to a gun. The gun in this case is a convenient scapegoat for people like him.

It's too bad folks like him are more concerned with the gun in the killer's hand than the culture that drove these teens to think it is ok to kill a person because they were bored. Even if you could destroy every gun in America it won't make that culture disappear.

This is America. Not Australia, not England. America.

8/21/2013 3:46:06 PM

Quote :

"am I the only one who is a bit hesitant to buy the narrative that the police are offering? I mean it makes for a damn nice headline, but we don't know shit about any of the facts"

well could be trayvon revenge then

8/21/2013 3:50:17 PM

Quote :

"Since one of the suspects already admitted that they decided to kill him b/c they were bored, yeah I think we should believe it"

a cop has said that. I haven't heard one of the suspects say that and I doubt you have

in a post-Paradise Lost world, I'll never trust what a cop says in regards to crimes like this

and in no way am I advocating their innocence. I just have issues with cops being so quick to build a narrative.

8/21/2013 4:05:53 PM

Quote :

"This is America. Not Australia, not England. America."

right, Australia and England are laughing at us and our gun laws. as is the rest of the world.

8/21/2013 4:13:18 PM

Let 'em laugh, I don't give a fuck.

8/21/2013 4:15:35 PM

black man killed? scared white people

white man killed? scared white people

8/21/2013 4:31:42 PM

^^ fuck yeah man, I went down to the gun store the other day and walked out with my gun after a 5 minute background check. fuck those pussyass gun hating faggots

8/21/2013 8:05:09 PM

Quote :

"And something about the ACLU and Jackson and Sharpton."

saw my first mention of Jesse Jackson on Facebook earlier

it's almost as if people sit around and wait excitedly for him to make a comment and then bash it, regardless of what he says

makes no sense, man

8/21/2013 8:13:15 PM

it's a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart

8/21/2013 8:33:31 PM