Texas College Student Allegedly Killed Over Beer Pong Game Gone Wrong
Lacie LaRose, a 19-year-old student at Blinn College, was shot and killed at a graduation party last month after a fight that began as an argument over the rules of beer pong, according to one witness. Ronald McNeil, the 39-year-old alleged killer, told police that the fight was racially charged.
The Bryan-College Station Eagle reports that LaRose was killed at a May 2 party hosted in College Station, Tx., by Landon Duke, a 23-year-old recent graduate of Texas A&M. Duke told the Eagle that McNeil came back to his house and shot LaRose after he had already been escorted out of the party because of the earlier fight.
According to Duke, McNeil and several of his friends showed up uninvited after Duke knocked on McNeill’s door to ask him to contact the partygoers directly rather than call police if he had a noise complaint. The beer pong fight allegedly happened after the roughly 100-person party had dwindled down to a smaller crowd. From the Eagle:
One of McNeil’s friends got into an argument with one of Duke’s friends over the rules for beer pong, Duke said. The verbal exchange became more heated and McNeil and his friends were asked to leave, according to Duke, who said he had stood up to join his friends in escorting the men out.
Duke said he threw a punch that knocked one of McNeil’s friends on the ground; the man got up and left with his friends. Duke said some other people threw punches in the altercation, but that the fight was over pretty quickly. Duke did not name who the other people in the argument were.
McNeil told police that attendees “were yelling racial slurs and beating up his friend,” according to the Eagle, but Duke said that he doesn’t recall racial slurs being used. McNeil and his friends are black; most of the other party attendees were white.
McNeil allegedly shot at LaRose 14 times as she was in the backyard getting beers for an upcoming game of beer pong. Her body was dragged into the garage, where Duke found her after hearing the shots. Two other guests received minor injuries from the shots. McNeil, who was arrested by College Station police while fleeing the scene, told investigators that intended only to scare partygoers with his handgun, and had fired it accidentally. He was charged with murder, deadly conduct, and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and is currently being held on $500,00 bail at Brazos County Jail.
