Teen Killed While Playing "Army" With Friend
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pittsburgh police say a teenager was killed by his own best friend, after the two were playing "army" with a loaded gun.
16-year-old Kenneth Lampkin, died Monday at UPMC Mercy Hospital, after being shot over the weekend by his friend, 17-year-old Joseph Robinson.
The boys were reportedly playing "army" on a Saturday at Lampkin's home on Zara Street, in Pittsburgh's Knoxville neighborhood.
John Parker, of a group called "Stop the Violence," said Lampkin and Robinson were best friends.
"Words can't express how this is right now. Two families are torn. Usually, around here, it's a street rivalry. This is not the case this time, best friends playing with guns," Parker said. "I mentored them both. Talked to them every day, on a daily basis about this out here and now this is what it comes to."
A police report says investigators found Lampkin in a second-floor bathroom when they went to the home Saturday evening.
"My heart is crushed into a thousand pieces. I can't even pick them back up and put them together," the victim's mother said.
Friends said this incident was an accident. Robinson said he did not know the gun was loaded.
"Two friends playing that loved each other dearly that's what I want people to know, that this was really a tragedy," Rasheda Jones said.
Robinson told police he removed two weapons from the home before they arrived, police later recovered the weapons not far from the home.
Robinson, booked on a count of aggravated assault, among other things, has been charged as an adult.
The charge is expected to be upgraded to homicide.
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