(CNN) -- As an Oklahoma town comes to grips with the apparent senseless
killing of an Australian baseball player on their streets, one man is offering
a possible motive.
"I don't think it was for fun. I don't think it was at
random," James Johnson, whose call to police ended with the apprehension
of three teens who are accused of killing Christopher Lane, told
Australia-based Fairfax Media.
"I think it was a (gang) initiation," he said.
When Johnson called police, he didn't know about the killing of
Lane, he told Fairfax Media, which owns the Sydney Morning Herald.
All he knew was that he got a call from his own
son, who said the three teens -- James Edwards Jr., Chancey Luna and Michael
Jones -- had threatened him because he refused to join a gang.
Johnson was working on his truck across the street, and as his son
told him about the threat, he says, he saw the three teens arrive in front of
the house in the town of Duncan.
He called police and told them about the threat and the boys at
his house.
Police arrested the three and named them suspects in the killing
of Lane, which had happened hours earlier.
Edwards' sister said Thursday that he did hang around some older
men who were thought to be in a gang, but she said she didn't know about her
brother actually being in a gang.
Edwards, 15, and Luna, 16, have been charged as adults with
first-degree felony murder.
Jones, 17, faces charges of using a vehicle in the discharge of a
weapon and accessory after the fact to murder in the first degree.
Police say Jones told them, "We were bored and didn't have
anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody."
Lane's friends and family are being invited to a memorial game in
his honor Sunday, and a donation page has been set up to raise money for a
memorial fund in his name.
A former student and classmate at East Central University, where
Lane was studying, described him as "a charming guy, genuinely good
person, with great character and had a love for life."
"As cliched as it sounds, Chris was the kind of guy you want
your sons to grow up to be and that you want your daughters to marry. It just
breaks my heart knowing how much more he could have brought to this world as a
husband, father, son, brother and friend," Sam Malchar said.
Shock and sorrow after shooting
Richard Rhodes, a 37-year-old contractor who was working on a
house near where the shooting happened, tried to save Lane's life by performing
CPR, he told Fairfax Media.
"I was like this, telling him, 'buddy, stay with us; stay
with us,' " Rhodes told Fairfax as he showed how he knelt next to the
victim.
Rhodes was gasping for air, and soon the gasps stopped.
Rhodes and a woman together performed CPR until it became apparent
that Lane had died, Fairfax reported.
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