Teen Tells How He Accidentally Shot Duvall Pal To Death

SEATTLE - A 17-year-old youth who said he accidentally shot a friend to death after a rowdy party in February has been charged with manslaughter.

The pair were trying to steal a Volvo on a remote road near Carnation on Feb. 27 when the teen shot Nathan Lines, 16, in the head with an Uzi submachine gun. The friend told authorities the gun discharged as Lines was hot-wiring the car.

But in papers filed Monday, King County prosecutors say a shooter would have had to manually insert a bullet into the Uzi's chamber and defeat two safety mechanisms to fire the gun.

The 17-year-old was charged in King County Juvenile Court with first-degree manslaughter. He is to be arraigned May 24.

The shooting occurred after Lines, a Duvall resident, and four other teens partied at an abandoned house in the 11200 block of East Lake Joy Drive.

For much of the evening, they drank beer, smoked marijuana and ransacked the house, prosecutors said.

And at one point, they played with the gun that later killed Lines.

According to court papers, one of the youths had stolen the gun from a friend, and Lines and other friends stole ammunition from a store earlier in the day. They took turns shooting the 9-mm submachine gun. Lines fired it twice; the 17-year-old and another teen each fired it once.

One of the teens was in the attic at the time and said one bullet came through the ceiling.

At about 2:30 a.m., the two girls in the group said they needed to get home. Because none of them had a car, Lines and the 17-year-old volunteered to steal one, prosecutors allege.

The two set out with the unloaded Uzi and four bullets and left behind a magazine that would have automatically loaded the gun.

They found a 1968 Volvo near East Lake Joy Drive and 356th Avenue Northeast.

Lines pushed the car into the intersection and then crawled under the driver's side dash to hot-wire it. The 17-year-old told police he leaned on the passenger's seat and held the Uzi with his left hand, which went off as he bent down to illuminate the dash with a lighter.

He returned to the house and said he accidentally shot Lines. He and the teen who stole the gun returned to the intersection, concluded Lines was dead, disassembled the gun and hid it in a stump.

They went to a nearby home where they called 911.

According to court papers, the 17-year-old at first told police Lines was shot by "cowboys" who fled in a pickup. Later, he acknowledged it was he who did the shooting.

But according to prosecutors, without the magazine a bullet would have to be manually inserted into an Uzi's chamber. And to get the gun to fire, a shooter would have to turn off a safety latch and depress the handgrip.

The 17-year-old was arrested and released following the shooting.

The standard sentence range for juveniles convicted of first-degree manslaughter is from two to 2 1/2 years in custody.