Soldier charged for killing friend to cure his hiccups

GlobalPost

A Fort Hood, Texas soldier is being charged with manslaughter for accidentally shooting a fellow soldier in the face to try and scare away his hiccups, reports AP. 

Police reports claim that 27-year old Army Spc. Patrick Edward Myers was drinking beer and watching football with two friends at a residence in Killeen, Texas on Sunday night when 22-year-old soldier Isaac Lawrence Young developed a case of the hiccups. Myers pointed a loaded gun at Young to try and scare him but the gun discharged and hit him in the face.

"The victim had the hiccups. The suspect pulled out a gun to scare him in order to stop the hiccups," spokesman Carroll Smith of the Killeen, Texas, Police Department told CNN. 

NBC News reports that Myers thought the gun held dummy rounds when it discharged but it actually held real bullets. Young was taken by ambulance to an airfield for transport to a hospital when he reportedly died enroute.

Myers, of Spartansburg, S.C., remains in Texas' Bell County Jail on $1 million bond. 

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.