Man Accidentally Shoots and Kills Friend During Party That Was Being Streamed on Facebook Live

A Cleveland man fatally shot his 27-year-old friend on accident at a dinner party that was streamed on Facebook Live.

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Complex Original

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Last week, 30-year-old Steven Leannais invited 27-year-old Anthony Stanford II and two other friends to his apartment in ClevelandOhio for dinner and drinks. During the dinner party, somebody grabbed Leannais' Glock handgun. The friends played with the weapon, joking and waving it around, while they live-streamed themselves on Facebook Live. But by the end of the night, Stanford was dead after Leannais accidentally shot and killed him.

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A Facebook Live video, which was taken shortly before the shooting and obtained by Cleveland.com, shows the friends with the gun. "So we're going to cap that guy's ass, right?" a man holding the gun says in the clip above. He looks into the camera and says, "So this is recording?" He then points the gun at the camera and says, "We're going to walk up to him, be like, 'Listen, give me my fucking money.'"

"That's loaded, don't put your finger on that," says Leannais.

"Okay, don't point it at me," a woman is heard saying.

The man points the gun at his face before Leannais takes the gun away and removes the magazine. "There you go, now it's not loaded," Leannais says.

Once he got the gun back, the man puts it in his mouth and jokes about suicide: "I'm going to do it, I swear to God."

The man steps back and adds, "The last thing they say is always, 'I didn't know it was loaded!'" Leannais explains that's the reason he took out the clip, which he shows viewers before assuring them that the gun is empty. He puts the bullets up close to the camera: "See that? That would have made a bloody mess. See that hollow point right there?"

Seconds later, Stanford arrives at the apartment. Stanford says what's up to the camera. Leannais then shows the dinner he made, before the video ends.

Later in the night, Leannais, who was reportedly drunk at the time of the accidental shooting, picked up the gun, lowered it to his side, and pulled the trigger. Despite Leannais' previous assurances that the gun wasn't loaded, there was a bullet in the chamber, and it hit Stanford in the upper abdomen. They called 911 and Stanford was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead around an hour later, according to Cleveland.com.

Leannais, whose bond is set at $10,000, is charged with third-degree felony involuntary manslaughter. 

"[Leannais] really is distraught about the loss of his friend, Anthony Stanford," a defense attorney told the Washington Post. "He wants to apologize to Anthony's family, particularly his mother, Trina Ford. He would do anything to trade places with Anthony if he was able to. He would do anything to take back the accident that happened."

In the end, as the victim's mother Trina Ford told Cleveland.com, "Guns and alcohol don't mix."

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