In a sad turn of events, a soldier, Army Spc. Patrick Edward Myers, was taken into custody by police officers in Texas after he was accused of shooting his friend during a joke that went horribly wrong. The friend is also another member of the military. According to reports from the Associated Press, Myers pointed his gun at his friend’s head in the hopes of scaring him enough so his hiccups would stop.
The soldier, 27 and stationed at Fort Hood, thought his gun was loaded with dummy rounds. The gun then went off in the face of his friend and it actually had live rounds in the gun. A statement released by the Killeen Police Department said that Myers was “handling it in an unsafe manner.”
A press release from the Killeen Police Department said that the two men had been watching football and drinking when the shooting occurred. The victim of the shooting, 22, died en route to the hospital while in the ambulance. The victim has been identified as Pfc. Isaac Lawrence Young. Young hails from Ash Grove, Missouri. Myers is from Spartanburg, South Carolina. The bond for Myers was set at $1 million and he has been charged with manslaughter.