Youth Playing Russian Roulette Shoots Friend Between the Eyes

A 16-year-old Long Beach youth was hospitalized in serious condition Saturday after he was shot in the head by a friend playing Russian Roulette with his father’s gun, police reported.

The victim, who was not identified by police, was being treated at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Long Beach after he was shot Friday night in front of a group of his friends at an auto salvage yard in the 100 block of East Anaheim St.

The youth suffered a gunshot wound between his eyes, said Officer Ed Ruddy of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Harbor Division.

According to Ruddy, five teen-agers were watching television and playing cards in the yard when a 15-year-old friend of the victim found his father’s .38-caliber pistol in a drawer. The teen-ager took three bullets from the cylinder, leaving a fourth bullet still in the chamber and began playing Russian Roulette--with the gun pointed at his friends.

The teen-ager spun the cylinder, pulling the trigger twice. He spun the cylinder again, but when he pulled the trigger a third time, a shot sounded.

“According to the other boys, he seemed surprised when it went off,” Ruddy said.

The boy with the gun was arrested by Harbor Division police, booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and then released into the custody of his parents.