Gun game kills teen

• By SONIA SMITH
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 2, 2009 - Page: 1B

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Lapaul Bowie, 14, was still wearing his baseball uniform when he was shot and killed by his nephew early Wednesday morning during an apparent game of Russian roulette.

Police have classified the shooting, which happened at 12:50 a.m., as accidental, police spokesman Sgt. Don Kelly said.

Lapaul’s mother, Ementie Bowie, sat outside of her home at 2415 Winbourne Ave. late Wednesday morning with other mourning family members.

Bowie, who was not home at the time of the shooting, pieced together this narrative of what happened by talking to family members who were there:

Terrell Andre Profit, 17, Bowie’s grandson, was playing with a .38-caliber revolver in her living room, Bowie said.

Profit loaded the revolver with two bullets and pointed the gun at another Bowie grandson, who is also 14.

Profit pulled the trigger, but the gun did not go off, Bowie said.

Then, Profit aimed the gun at Lapaul, pulled the trigger and the bullet struck him once in the chest, Bowie said.

He was dead within minutes, after running down a hallway and collapsing in a bedroom, Bowie said.

Kelly said Profit ran from the home after the shooting, but officers in the area found and arrested him an hour later.

He was then booked into Parish Prison on a count of negligent homicide, Kelly said.

Bowie said she had no idea there was a gun in her house and Profit must have brought it Saturday when she picked him up from his mother’s house, she said.

At the time of the shooting, Lapaul, an eighth-grader at Park Forest Middle School, was still wearing the uniform he had on during a game with his baseball team, the BREC Tornados, on Tuesday night.