A Las Vegas woman has been charged with murder after she fatally shot her boyfriend while he was taking pictures of her posing with a gun.
Allysandra Blea, 20, was arrested on August 26 and faces a charge of open murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the Aug. 23 shooting, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said.
Blea Said Shooting was Accidental but Her Social Media Posts Told a Different Story
Police responded to the scene just before 5 a.m. on that morning and found 23-year-old Mark Gaughan, deceased with a gunshot wound. Blea claimed the shooting was accidental, but detectives soon found social media posts in which she said she wished she could "shoot people with real guns and get away with it," according to an arrest report.
"Allysandra's identified account revealed that she had a fascination with firearms," detectives said in the report. "In several conversations with various accounts, there was talk about her love of shooting guns, owning guns, building her arsenal, and shooting people in the face."
Investigators also found multiple photographs of Blea holding a variety of different kinds of guns, sometimes holding them against her own head or the heads of stuffed animals. She also reportedly wrote about "killing prostitutes" and homeless people who reportedly live in underground tunnels, and she has a "bullseye target" tattooed on her chest.
According to the police report, Blea, Gaughan and two others, Maverick Crafts and Gavin Fitzpatrick, had been drinking since about midnight on August 23. Fitzpatrick told investigators that he had unloaded the gun, which belonged to Gaughan, by "removing the magazine, clearing the chamber, and locking the slide back" as a safety precaution.
He said he put the magazine and gun on a table before falling asleep on the couch. After he fell asleep, Blea, Crafts, and Gaughan took the gun outside the take photos.
Blea and Gaughan were a Happy Couple, Had No Prior History of Fighting
"Maverick recalled Allysandra situated on her lap with the firearm, as Mark took a photo with the flash going off," the report said. "Maverick then witnessed another flash go off, and Allysandra pointed the firearm at Mark. She stated that she did not see Allysandra pull the trigger, but she heard the gunshot."
Fitzpatrick said he was awakened by the sound of Crafts and Blea screaming and ran outside. Crafts also told police that Fitzpatrick had taken the magazine out of the gun "for safety reasons," police said, adding that Gaughan "must have" reassembled the weapon when she and Blea went into the bedroom to change clothes for the photos.
Both Fitzpatrick and Crafts said that Blea and Gaughan seemed happy together and they had no knowledge of any fights. According to the police report, Blea told investigators that she'd "never taken any firearm safety courses and believed the firearem didn't have a bullet in the chamber," She was adamant that she did not intentionally kill Mark," the report said.
Blea has been ordered held without bail and will return to court on Oct. 2.
