Danny Ford, Chief of Police in Duncan, Oklahoma, reveals more information on the murder of Australian student, Christopher Lane. Courtesy MMM
THE girlfriend of slain Melbourne baseball star Chris Lane has posted an emotional tribute, describing their time together as "the most amazing years of my life".
Sarah Harper, who was with Lane for four years, added to a raft of tributes for the 23-year-old after he was killed in a random drive-by shooting in Oklahoma.
"The past 4 years have been the most amazing years of my life and that's all because of you babe," she wrote on Facebook today.
"I love you so much babe. From 2009 until forever you will always be mine and in a very special and protected place in my heart."
Ms Harper also posted a photo of a flower memorial erected by locals in the town of Duncan on the corner where he was tragically shot.
It comes after a 16-year-old boy confessed to pulling the trigger and killing Lane, according to police chief Danny Ford.
Chief Ford said the 16-year-old was with two other teens aged 15 and 17 when they killed Lane during a random drive-by shooting in the town of Duncan.
Chris Lane had just left the home of his US girlfriend Sarah Harper when he was shot dead.
He said the three teenagers had no motive other than to make a name for themselves.
All three are facing the charge of first-degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of the death penalty.
Chief Ford told 3AW this morning one of the accused has confessed to pulling the trigger, saying he just wanted to kill someone.
"Lately there has been some pretty weak motives, but I don't know that I've had one that they told us they were just going to kill somebody," he said.
He said the three teens were on a "killing spree" after , leaving a chilling message on Facebook.
Peter Lane said his son had left his mark and his death was just so pointless.
Christopher Lane was killed in a drive-by shooting in Oklahoma.
"There's not going to be any good come out of this because it was just so senseless," Mr Lane told reporters in Melbourne this morning.
"There wasn't anything he did or could have done.
"He was an athlete going for a jog, like he would do five or six days a week in terms of his training schedule.
"It's happened. It's wrong and we just try and deal with it the best we can."
Flowers and a baseball were placed on the home plate at Essendon Baseball Club this morning with a message that summed up the senseless shooting. "A wonderful young man taken too soon," it read. "Why?"
As family and friends grappled with the unthinkable tragedy, the 22-year-old's parents paid tribute to their boy at the field where his love for the sport began.
An investigator near the scene that Chris Lane was shot in an affluent neighbourhood of Duncan, Oklahoma. Picture: Supplied
Peter Lane said he could not have been more proud of a remarkable young man.
"He did all the things a kid should have done," Mr Lane said. "He caused us some grief but he caused us so much joy. He achieved a lot for a 22-year-old.
"He gave up a lot to follow his dream. He gave up 18th birthday parties to be at the Victorian Institute of Sport at 8am the next morning, ready to go.
"He left his mark."
Mr Lane said the family was still trying to process the circumstances of their son's death.
"There is not going to be any good come out of this. It was so senseless. There was nothing he did or could have done.".
Mr Lane said he was still waiting on news from US authorities regarding the repatriation of Chris's body.
Chief Ford said the teens drove to another house to murder a second unrelated victim just hours after shooting Lane in the back and leaving him to die in an upper-class area of Duncan at 2.57pm local time Friday (5.57am Saturday Melbourne time).
"They wanted to be Billy Bob Badasses," Chief Ford said.
"I think they were on a killing spree.
"We would have had more bodies that night if we didn't get them."
On one of the alleged killer's Facebook pages investigators said they found the message: "Bang. Two drops in two hours".
The teens accused of the shooting murder of an Australian baseballer in Oklahoma were on a 'killing spree'.
The accused are in custody in Stephens County Jail, awaiting formal murder charges expected on Monday local time.
Earlier, Chief Ford said one of the teens had been co-operating.
"He said, 'Yeah, we did it but I'm not going to tell you who pulled the trigger'," he said.
One of the alleged murderers was Caucasian, the other two were black, Chief Ford said.
Lane, 22, grew up in Oak Park in Melbourne's north and was in the US on a sports scholarship.
He was jogging through an area of "high dollar homes" after leaving the home of his American girlfriend, Sarah Harper, when he was followed and shot at the intersection of Country Club Rd and Twilight Beach Rd.
Google Streetview shows the location Chris Lane was gunned down a suburban area of Duncan, Oklahoma. Picture: Googlemaps
A memorial of flowers has already been put up.
Lane's murder has shocked the residents of Duncan, a quiet city of 25,000 people in southern Oklahoma, and his teammates at East Central University (ECU), where Lane won a scholarship to be the team's catcher.
The town has had only one other murder the past five years.
Local Bill Renfrow said Duncan locals had erected a flower memorial for lane on the street where he was shot.
"People here have really responded," he said.
"It's sad to us, more than anything. It's shocking. He was a visitor in our country.
Shooting victim Chris Lane had just returned to the US from an eight-week break in Australia with his US girlfriend Sarah Harper. Picture: Supplied
"This is a very quiet neighbourhood, there's never any trouble here."
Chief Ford told the Herald Sun that Lane had jogged past a house where the teenagers were gathered.
The three boys, in a black Ford Focus near the house, randomly spotted Lane.
"They followed him, I can't reason in my mind what their thought process was," he said.
"He went by and they saw him, and one or all three of them agreed that he was their target.
"They came up from behind, shot him in the back with a small-calibre handgun and sped off."
Chris Lane was popular and well-like in the US where he was studying and in his hometown Melbourne. Picture: Supplied
Witnesses saw Lane stumble across the road and then get down on his knees before struggling to a drainage area on the side of the road.
A woman who came from a nearby house tried CPR while another woman who was in a car stopped and called 911.
Despite paramedics and police being at the scene within minutes and transporting Lane to a nearby hospital, he was pronounced dead about an hour later.
Chief Ford said the only information investigators had at the scene was the killers were in a black car that had a white sticker on the front left hand side of the driver's windscreen.
Their big break came about four hours later when a concerned parent called police with the message: "Several juveniles are coming over to kill their son."
Police scrambled to the address and found a black car with a white sticker containing the three teenagers in an adjacent church car park.
Shooting victim Chris Lane had just returned to the US from an eight-week break in Australia with his US girlfriend Sarah Harper. Picture: Supplied
"Luckily we had officers there really quick," Detective John Byers said.
A search of the car found a shotgun, but the handgun was yet to be found, Chief Ford said.
However, ammunition for the handgun was found hidden in a fuse box under the bonnet of the car and Chief Ford said surveillance footage showed, minutes after Lane was shot, the boys hiding a weapon in the air box breather in the car's engine.
In between the shooting of Lane and the boys' arrest one of the boys kept an appointment with juvenile authorities for a previous brush with the law, Chief Ford said.
The boys did not have an apparent link to a gang or drugs, he added.
"I know everybody thinks there has to be a reason, but I've been in this business for 30 years and there doesn't have to be a reason with these kids," Chief Ford said.
Chris Lane as a student at St Bernard's College.
"It is a sad, sad thing what happened with that young man."
Lane had only been back in Duncan for three days when he was killed after an eight-week break in Australia with Ms Harper, whom he had met at college.
Ms Harper, a talented sportswoman, declined an interview request from the Duncan Banner newspaper.
Lane, the youngest of four children, had played for Essendon and Watsonia baseball clubs.
"He was a very talented athlete, he was a very talented junior footballer as well," Mr Lane said.
"He picked baseball because it gave him a chance to go to college."
The former student of St Bernard's College and Oak Park's St Francis de Sales Primary School had been studying business.
Mr Lane said his son had hoped to get into the real estate industry in Australia or the US when he finished his degree.
He had no plans to turn professional, his father said.
"He played for the love of it."
Lane's high school sports teacher remembered him as a happy-go-lucky boy who would give anything a go, from sport to choir and academic challenges.
"He was always a competitor, always willing to give things a go, as you can see by his year book," said St Bernard's director of sport Craig Osborne.
"He was a talented sportsperson, popular with the other kids. Sport was in his personality, it's what he loved to do. He was a natural athlete."
St Bernard's principal Tony Paatsch said 2008 school captain David Ireland had written a moving tribute remembering Lane as "one of the happiest and funniest kids he knew".
"It is a huge shock," Mr Paatsch said.
He said the St Bernard's Old Collegians Association would set up a repatriation fund for Mr Lane's family, with details on the St Bernard's school website later today.
Essendon Baseball Club president Tony Cornish described Lane as a fantastic player and good person.
Mr Cornish said the club was a family: "We love each other. The club will miss him."
The club's match against Melbourne University on Sunday will be turned into tribute to Lane.
The club was also creating new uniforms with Lane's initials and his number, 40, on a logo.
St Bernard's College said a prayer for Lane and his family this morning.
Titled Hold fast to your hope Chris Lane: Class of 2008, the prayer read:
God you gave us reasons to hope - to see beyond the present with faith in your presence that all will be well.
The loss of our friend Chris may rob us of hope, but you promise to be with us in all our difficulties.
"Blessed are you who weep now, for one day you will laugh."
Help us to keep our head facing towards the horizon, even when the tears cloud our vision. Guide us with hope that someday, all will be well.
Give Chris' family hope too, so that one day they will again share the laughter of friendship, galvanised from our heartfelt and unyielding support for them in their time of need.
Plant hope deep in our hearts, deep and firm, and fill us with the knowledge that Your grace is with us always.
We can live fully only if we act according to your light, so shine your light into our darkness and into the life of us all who mourn.
In your light and presence, we can all go forward in hope.
Sustain us that we may live.
- With Aaron Langmaid, Shelley Hadfield and Samantha Landy
