A Chicago teen charged in the murder of his 16-year old friend admitted to the crime in a snapchat video, which was sent from the backseat of a patrol car after his arrest.
According to reports, police were bringing 17-year old Anthony Mendoza in for questioning about the murder of his friend, Christian Bandemer, when the suspect sent out a snapchat video saying, "I killed Chris and now I'm going to kill myself."
Mendoza, Bandemer and his cousin were allegedly messing around with a shotgun when the victim's cousin went outside to smoke a cigarette and heard a loud "pop."
Mendoza threw away the shotgun in high grass in front of an abandoned house, Sedelmaier said. “After about a minute, the defendant came back from hiding the gun and he has blood on him and asked the cousin what happened,” she said.
Police initially said the shooting might be accidental, as Bandemer was with a friend and a cousin who were showing him a shotgun before it went off.
But Assistant State's Attorney Anna Sedelmaier said in court Sunday that Mendoza should have known there was a strong possibility of killing someone with the gun, that he was the only one in the room with Bandemer when the gun went off and that he told the 20-year-old cousin “not to snitch” about the shooting.
A judge set Mendoza's bond at $250,000. His attorney maintains the incident was a complete accident as he had no animosity towards the victim.
“What this is, is a tragedy. An absolute tragedy,” said Chiampas as she set bond, later saying there wasn't enough evidence to make her believe the shooting was intentional.
[Via]
