Crime & Safety

Shooting Fatality Was Not Russian Roulette

Police dispute the witnesses' stories.

Thomas Wane Rady, 28, has been charged with manslaughter in the shooting of a St. Petersburg man that witnesses originally claimed was self-inflicted during a game of Russian Roulette.

Rady turned himself in at the Pinellas County Jail.

Donnie McLendon, the gunshot victim wounded last Saturday morning, died Thursday at Tampa General Hospital.

An autopsy called in to question the accounts of the two other men present at the time of the shooting, David Mckee and Rady, police sai.d

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They claimed that McLendon had wounded himself while taking a turn during a game of Russian Roulette.

Further investigation determined that the three had not been playing Russian
Roulette, but that McLendon was accidently wounded by Rady, who was holding the gun at the time it discharged. All three had been drinking and smoking marijuana prior to the accident taking place, police said.

On Saturday morning at about 2:15 a.m. officers responded to a call of a
person shot at 1110 32 Avenue North. Upon arrival, officers found the house
vacant with a trail of blood leading from inside the house to the outside.
Marijuana and drug paraphernalia were evident inside as well.

A few moments after their arrival a report was received that a man had been
brought to St. Anthony's Hospital with a bullet wound to the head.

Officers arrived at the hospital where the victim, Donnie McLendon, 26, was
being treated by emergency room staff. He was later transported to Tampa
General Hospital and was last listed in critical condition.

Two other individuals at the hospital were interviewed and identified as
Daniel Mckee , 22 and Thomas Rady, 29.  Both subjects claimed that they had
been at 1110 32 Avenue North with McLendon early that morning and that they
had been drinking and smoking marijuana together. Mckee advised that he was
house-sitting at the residence for a friend who was out of town.



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