Family and friends of Melbourne man Chris Lane are preparing for his funeral today amid autopsy results confirming that he was killed by a single bullet to his back.
Two teenagers have been charged with first-degree murder over Lane’s death in Duncan, Oklahoma on August 16.
Another teen is accused of being an accessory and driving a vehicle during the discharge of a weapon.
Lane’s American girlfriend, Sarah Harper, will be among his family and friends gathering at St Therese’s Church in Essendon from 11.30am for his funeral.
Ms Harper, 23, accompanied Lane’s body back from Oklahoma on Saturday, a week after he was randomly gunned down in the town of Duncan while jogging.
Ms Harper also joined Lane’s family at an emotional tribute match at the Essendon Baseball Club on Sunday.
She posted on Facebook afterwards that the memorial was “beautiful”, thanking his closest friends for helping her through a terrible week.
“This past week has been excruciating but seeing how much you guys love him really comforts me,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, one of Lane’s former coaches will be meeting with State Government representatives later this week to discuss creating a little league field in his honor.
John Edwards, who coached Lane in T-ball, little league and as a senior player at the Essendon Baseball Club, said the Government had floated the idea of replacing the doomed Ross Straw baseball field in the Melbourne suburb of Parkville with a Chris Lane Memorial Field.
The field is set to be demolished and moved elsewhere to make way for the planned East-West Link development.
Mr Edwards is petitioning Major League Baseball and Little League Baseball to help fund a little league field in Lane’s name at the Essendon club.
His Change.org campaign has attracted more than 20,000 signatures in four days.
“When his started we thought the chances of it happening would be a million to one. Now, we’ve gotten so much support, it’s more like 50 to one,” Mr Edwards said.
It comes as an attorney for the alleged shooter, 16-year-old Chancey Luna, discounted the evidence against his client, saying it was based solely on unreliable testimony of another teen in the case – 17-year-old Michael Jones.
Jim Berry, who was appointed to represent Luna, will also seek a change of venue to avoid the publicity in Duncan.
This story was originally post at News.com.au.