Affidavit: Man who killed 16-year-old thought gun had blanks in it

The man charged with second-degree reckless murder in the shooting death of a 16-year-old boy at a south Wichita duplex earlier this month said he thought the gun was loaded with blank rounds when he pointed it at the teen.

Fabian Juan Griffin said in a police interview that he and his friends sometimes pulled stunts on one another in the style of television show “Jackass” and that he had previously fired blanks from the black 9mm semi-automatic handgun that killed Casey James Lawrukiewicz.

He said he didn’t know it contained live rounds when he picked it up off of a computer desk in a neighbor’s house shortly before midnight March 3.

Griffin’s account is among previously unknown details about the shooting contained in an affidavit released Thursday by Sedgwick County District Court.

Police have said the killing wasn’t intentional but Griffin, 43, was thought to be handling a gun unsafely when it happened.

The shooting occurred in the living room of 1704 S. Yale, near Harry and Hillside. The gun belongs to the man who lived there, according to the affidavit.

Griffin and the teen were neighbors and friends. Griffin is due in court for his next hearing on April 12.

Griffin told police that after the shooting “he was scared and went to his sister’s house to kill himself,” according to the affidavit. When officers arrived, they found the gun lying the driveway of the home. Griffin was next door in his sister’s basement. Officers arrested him after he came out.

Lawrukiewicz died at 1:35 a.m. March 4 at Wesley Medical Center. He was a student at Wichita East High School.

This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 5:59 PM with the headline "Affidavit: Man who killed 16-year-old thought gun had blanks in it."