Chat room suicide
BC-US--Chat Room Shooting, 2nd Ld-Writethru,413
Neb. police rule chat room shooting an accident
%reldate(2012-06-04T17:29:55
Eds: Adds quotes from police captain, background about case and byline.
By JOSH FUNK
Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A death of a 19-year-old Nebraska man who shot himself in the head while in an online video chat room has been ruled an accident, police said Monday.
Bellevue police decided Trevor George's early March death was not a suicide after interviewing witnesses and reviewing computer records, Capt. David Stukenholtz said. Police also determined George was not coerced into shooting himself when he held a revolver up to his head and pulled the trigger.
Several people who were in the Tinychat video chat room George was logged into that night told police they previously had seen him put a gun to his head, Stukenholtz said.
"He has a history of simulating this event," Stukenholtz said. "This time, for whatever reason, there was a bullet in the chamber of the gun that he did not get out of there."
The anonymous nature of the chat room created challenges for investigators and made it almost impossible for some of the people who witnessed the shooting online to report it, police said. Most of the people in the chat room didn't appear to know George's real name or where he lived. Some of the witnesses contacted by Bellevue police live in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and elsewhere in the United States...
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Neb-police-rule-chat-room-shooting-an-accident-3607302.php
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