A Texas man has been charged with murder following a game in which he and his friend took turns shooting each other in the head with rifles while wearing Kevlar helmets.
On 17 August, good friends Sean O’Donnell (37) and Aaron Prout (34) were hanging out in the former’s home when they decided to play a very stupid and dangerous game – taking turns shooting each other in the head with a rifle while wearing a Kevlar helmet for protection. Kevlar helmets are used by modern soldiers because they are known to whithstand heavy impacts, but they are not completely bulletproof. In this particular case, the two friends, who had been drinking, were reportedly holding the Kevlar helmet above their heads while the other tried to aim at it with a rifle. All it took was for one of them to miss their shot by a few millimeters to turn their friendly game into a tragedy.
Photo: Remy Gieling/Unsplash
“Hard to believe two so-called friends would take turns shooting at each other wearing a Kevlar helmet, inside a house in a residential neighbourhood, while using a rifle,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez wrote about the incident on X.
UK native Aaron Prout sustained a bullet injury to the head and was pronounced dead at the hospital. Originally, authorities believed that his wounds were accidentally self-inflicted, but a subsequent investigation would reveal that they had been caused by his friend while trying to shoot at the Kevlar helmet above Prout’s head. Despite O’Donnell’s attempts at covering up his tragic mistake, the evidence against him was irrefutable. Apparently, the two had shared videos of themselves shooting each other with a rifle with other friends.
“The defendant is alleged to have told the police that he shot himself, but there are witnesses who have video that the defendant and the complainant sent of them playing with the gun and shooting with the helmet back and forth, and these friends told them to stop,” the judge in this case said during a hearing. “The defendant and his friend were playing with guns. They were drinking. They were shooting at a Kevlar helmet. They were holding it above their heads until the complainant ended up with a bullet hole in the top of his head.”
Aaron Prout had served in the Royal Marines for 10 years before moving to Texas. His friend O’Donnell has been arrested for murder, and his bail has been set at $3,000.
It’s a tragedy that someone lost their life, but this story once again confirms that the saying “play stupid games, collect stupid prizes” holds true.
