One of the teens charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Australian baseball player Christopher Lane in Duncan, Okla., previously posted anti-white statements on his Twitter feed.
James Edwards, 15, Chancey Luna, 16, and Michael Jones, 17, have all been charged as adults in Lane’s death. Lane, a 22 year-old student from Melbourne, was out for a jog last Friday evening when the three teens began following him in a car and shot him “just for the fun of it,” according to Duncan officials.
Edwards and Luna are charged with first-degree murder while Jones is accused of using a vehicle in the discharge of a weapon and as an accessory to first-degree murder after the fact. Edwards and Luna are held without bond; Jones’ bond has been set at $1 million.
Edwards’ social media activities are still on stark display and show the teen glorifying hip-hop, violence and sex. Pictures on Facebook also show Edwards and Luna wearing gang colors and flashing gang signs.
A couple of Tweets also suggest that Edwards wasn’t fond of white people.
On April 29, he tweeted, “90% of white ppl are nasty. #HATE THEM.”
On July 15, days after the George Zimmerman verdict, Edwards tweeted “Ayeee I knocced out 5 woods since Zimmerman court!:) lol shit ima keep sleepin shit! #ayeeee.”
“Woods” is a derogatory term for white people.
Duncan police chief Dan Ford said he had not yet seen Edwards’ social media activities.
“I don’t think there’d be any further charge,” he told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a phone interview when asked if Edwards’ activities warranted any sort of hate crime charge. “I’m not discounting the stuff that’s on there, but they do that for shock and effect.”
Ford said he hasn’t seen any racial tension or gang activity in the town which is home to about 24,000 people in the south-central part of Oklahoma. (RELATED: Jesse Jackson says ‘this senseless violence if frowned upon’)
“We haven’t had any problem in this community,” he said. “Zero.”
But the man who reported the three teens to police has claimed that gangs do exist in Duncan.
James Johnson claimed that the three were after his 17-year-old son Chris to join the Crips street gang. Johnson called to report that the three teens were near his house with guns and threatening his son’s life on the evening of the shooting. He claimed that gangs had begun spilling over into Duncan from nearby Lawton, a larger city to the west.
Jones first admitted that he was driving the car, a small black sedan. The car was spotted on video surveillance speeding away from the shooting scene. Jones later told police that Luna fired a shot from the back seat while Edwards was in the front seat of the vehicle at the time.
The parents of Edwards and Luna have maintained that they are innocent.
Lane’s death has sparked outrage from politicians in his home country. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer called for a boycott of the U.S.
“So, it is another example of murder and mayhem on Main Street,” Fischer told CNN’s Piers Morgan on Tuesday. “Yes, people are thinking of going to the USA on business, vacation, trips, should think carefully about it given the statistical facts you are 15 times more likely to be shot dead in the USA than in Australia per capita per million people,” said Fischer.
Stephens County District Attorney Jason Hicks was unavailable for comment.
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