A 23-year-old man was shot and killed in central California after a bizarre shooting that began with three friends drinking and shooting each other with rubber bullets for fun, authorities said.
Fresno County Sheriff deputies were called Sunday night about a person being shot and seriously injured at a home in Tollhouse, Sheriff’s spokesman Tony Botti said.
Deputies and emergency personnel performed CPR, but Bradly Smith, of Clovis, died a short time later, the Fresno Bee reported.
A friend identified as Elvis Hernandez, 30, of Reedley, fired a shotgun blast at him. Hernandez has been arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter in the incident, Botti said.
It wasn’t immediately known if Hernandez has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
Hernandez, Smith and a third unidentified man were drinking alcohol before the unidentified man went to bed. That’s when the other two found some rubber bullets and decided to shoot the sleeping man for a joke. They put a mattress on top of him and fired one of the rubber bullets at the mattress, waking him up, he said.
Smith then told the man that he could fire one of the rubber bullets at him as payback. Smith put on a military-style helmet and a protective vest and was shot with one of the rubber bullets, before telling Hernandez that he could also fire a rubber bullet at him. Mistakenly, Hernandez picked up a shotgun loaded with highly lethal 00 buckshot and hit Smith in the upper body.
Hernandez was booked into Fresno County Jail with a bond of $10,000.