Cops: Okla. Teens Killed Baseball Player 'for Fun'

Young Australian gunned down at random
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 20, 2013 2:41 AM CDT
Updated Aug 20, 2013 4:33 AM CDT
Cops: Okla. Teens Killed Baseball Player 'for Fun'
In this undated photo provided by the Essendon Baseball Club, player Chris Lane wears his baseball equipment.   (AP Photo/Essendon Baseball Club)

A young Australian man who was in the US on a baseball scholarship is dead because three bored teenagers decided to kill somebody for fun, say police in Duncan, Oklahoma. Christopher Lane, 22, was out for a jog in the small town when he was gunned down, apparently at random, the AP reports. Police say a 17-year-old has confessed to the murder and two accomplices, ages 15 and 16, are also in custody.

"They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: 'There's our target,'" the local police chief says. "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 and his girlfriend had returned from a visit to Australia just three days earlier. The killing "is heartless and to try to understand it is a short way to insanity," his father says. First-degree murder charges are expected to be filed today against the teens, who can be tried as adults but won't face the death penalty. (More Oklahoma stories.)

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