UTTERLY SENSELESS

Armor-Clad Teens Take Turns Shooting Each Other—and One Ends Up Dead, Cops Say

The friend who allegedly fired the fatal shot has been charged with manslaughter.

A 16-year-old boy in Belleview, Florida, died on Thursday after he was fatally shot while he and his friends were playing with body armor, WKMG reports. According to police, Christopher Leroy Broad Jr. and his friends were talking about body armor when one of them, 17-year-old Joshua Vining, asked if they had ever been shot while wearing a vest. Broad and Vining then took turns wearing the armor and shooting at each other, with Broad shooting Vining once. When Vining took hold of the 9mm gun, he shot Broad once, according to police. When Broad nodded, Vining then allegedly shot him four more times, resulting in Broad’s death. Vining’s friend Colton Whitler, 17, then allegedly tried to mislead police by saying someone shot up the house, though they found no evidence of that. Vining was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child with a firearm while Whitler was charged with providing false information to police. Both will be charged as adults.