A Florida woman unintentionally shot and killed her boyfriend this week when she "playfully" fired a gun at him that she didn't realize was loaded.
Erin Steele, 20, was visiting a friend with her boyfriend, Justin Holt, 22, on Sunday. Another friend arrived, bringing a pistol that the group of four passed around to look at, Gawker reported via Opposing Views.
The four friends spent time "dry-firing the gun at each other for fun" before moving on to something else, according to Boca Raton authorities.
Joshua Henry, who owns the gun, loaded the gun and put it back on the counter at some point without Steele noticing.
About two hours later, she picked up the gun and fired it at Holt, believing it was a continuation of the "game."
Holt immediately crumpled to the ground in pain upon receiving a shot in the chest. The friends called 911, and a man can be heard on the call saying, "Please help me, ma'am! There was an accident; there was a very bad accident. Someone picked up my firearm by mistake, ma'am, and someone got shot. Please, please come."
The 22-year-old man was rushed to Delray Medical Center, but he was pronounced dead soon after.
Holt's family bears no ill will toward Steele, believing that the tragic incident was indeed an accident.
"We have a lot of compassion for her because she's got to live with that, no matter what she does, for the rest of her life," Holt's grandfather, 82-year-old Michael DiFiore, told the Sun Sentinel.
The couple, who had been together for nearly a year, were very much in love, said Maria Holt, Justin Holt's mother.
"They met and then that was it, they were together," she said. "From day one--day one--he was in love with her."
Steele has not been arrested in connection with the shooting, and family members have said they wouldn't want to see that happen.
"It was a stupid accident," DiFiore told the Sun Sentinel. "It never should have happened."
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