Olympia woman arrested for manslaughter after game of Russian roulette kills a man
A 26-year-old Olympia woman was arrested on suspicion of second-degree manslaughter over the weekend after a game of Russian Roulette killed a man, according to police.
The victim, 41, died as a result of a gunshot wound to the head, Olympia Police Lt. Paul Lower said Tuesday.
About 2:20 a.m. Saturday, police were dispatched to a residence in the 1600 block of Madison Avenue Northwest, near Garfield Elementary School in west Olympia, after a report of a woman witnessing “somebody shoot themselves.” Police arrived to find the woman outside the home, “extremely distraught,” Lower said.
Police then found the man’s body and the handgun, he said.
The woman said she was visiting the man at his home. He had shown her some handguns and then invited her to play Russian Roulette, according to police, a game the Merriam Webster dictionary describes as “an act of bravado consisting of spinning the cylinder of a revolver loaded with one cartridge, pointing the muzzle at one’s own head, and pulling the trigger.”
Lower said the woman told police the man held her hand to the gun and then put the gun to his head when the trigger was pulled. Police are still investigating because it was not immediately clear who pulled the trigger, he said.
This story was originally published July 25, 2023 at 10:39 AM.
