A joke with weapons between Florida twin brothers turned bloody when one of them fatally shot the other in the face.
According to the Gulfport Police Department, the shooting occurred Sunday at around 7 p.m. inside Mathias and Thomas Parkinson-Freeman’s 1995 Nissan Pathfinder that was parked in the 5600 block of 25th Avenue.
“The brothers, along with a mutual friend, sat in the vehicle as they talked and joked. There was no indication of any sort of conflict,” a press release revealed.
Suddenly, Mathias Parkinson-Freeman grabbed a fake gun and pointed it at his sibling.
“Thomas responded by producing his own handgun, pointing it at his brother, and pulling the trigger.” The 23-year-man was “mortally wounded.”
The incident occurred a few moments after Thomas was fired from his job as a security officer and was wearing a gun belt at the time.
“He had apparently been wearing the belt, with a personally-owned firearm, to show it off to the others.”
Police said that the suspect was “not acting in self-defense when he drew and fired his gun” and that he had “reacted automatically based on training.”
Thomas is being held at the Pinellas County Jail without bond after being charged with manslaughter.
