A live Facebook stream of a dinner party turned into a tragic accidental gun death of Anthony Stanford II, 27, of Cleveland. Police have charged Steven Leannais, 30, with manslaughter after he shot and killed Stanford inside his apartment. A small group of friends had gathered for a dinner party before Stanford arrived and are visibly intoxicated. As the night is live streamed on Facebook, a bottle of liquor is flashed as a well as a gun. One of the guests places the gun in his mouth as his friends laugh and he joked, “I swear, I’ll do it.” He assures everyone that the gun is unloaded and displays a clip of bullets. The man then says, “The last thing they say is always, ‘I didn’t know it was loaded.’ Leannais is heard to say that’s why he took the clip out and assures the viewers he took out the bullets. “See that,” he says putting the bullets up to the camera, “That would have made a bloody mess. See that hollow point right there?”
The plan was to prank Stanford when he came to the party. Stanford is Black and those seen on the Facebook stream all appear to be White. Finally, Stanford arrives and is welcomed by the group. Looking at the prepared gourmet meal, he states, “Yeah, that’s what’s up” and it looks good “fo sho” while his friends laughed. After the recording ended, Leannais allegedly pointed the gun at Stanford, pulled the trigger and fired a round still in the chamber, mortally wounding his friend in the abdomen. Leannais called 911 and Stanford was later transported to a hospital where he died from his injuries.
Leannais has been charged with third-degree felony involuntary manslaughter. Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Suzan Sweeney set his bond at $10K and ordered Leannais to surrender any guns he may have. In addition, he was also ordered to have no contact with any witnesses to the shooting. According to his attorney, Leannais has expressed extreme remorse over accidentally shooting his friend. Stanford worked as the maintenance man in the building and was well liked.
