Silly joke killed rising star...

[DS Star]

In 1984, a young, talented and handsome 26 years old lead actor (and singer) played a silly joke on himself while on set his TV show and was seriously injured. He later died due to the injury.

How did it happened?

New York Times reported:

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 17— Jon-Erik Hexum, a television actor critically injured with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was playing Russian roulette at the time of the shooting, the police said Tuesday.

Detective Gary Fullerton said that Mr. Hexum had loaded three empty cartridges and two gunpowder- filled blanks into a high-powered handgun before saying, '' 'Let's see if I've got one for me,' and fired the gun.''

The force of the blank round's explosion fractured the actor's skull near his right temple. The police closed their investigation of the shooting Monday, ruling it an accident.

Mr. Hexum, 27 years old, who shot himself on the ''Coverup'' television series set last Friday, underwent five hours of surgery at Beverly Hills Medical Center.



Jon-Erik Hexum (November 5, 1957 – October 18, 1984) was an American model and actor. He died as a result of an accidental self-inflicted blank cartridge gunshot wound to the head on the set of the CBS television series Cover Up in which he played the male lead.

http://youtu.be/xjsFd4liAYs
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The lessons here?

1. Never take our precious human lives for granted.
2. We will never know when our negative karma seeds will come to ripen.
3. Never create conditions to attract our negative karma seeds to come into fruition

According to the Law of Karma:

Is this consider as suicide?
I wonder what is the karma for this kind of silly action that caused one's own life...

[eyesoftara]

This is recklessness. A physical form of heedlessness. It derived from suffering and the 3 poison. John Erik Hexum was probably bored and trying to play a silly joke to liven things up. It is an example of what samsara entails. All beings wants happiness but in our delusions we think worldly happiness and in this case a joke albeit an extremely dangerous one can bring happiness. Even if this joke worked harmlessly the suffering is still pervasive. It is there we are all wait for the day the karma ripens for death to come.
That is what the Buddha taught in the Four Noble Truth.

[Jessie Fong]

It cannot be considered Suicide because suicide is an intentional act of causing one's death often committed out of despair.

What he did was reckless and a stupid selfish act.  He never bothered to consider the consequences.  Well, his karma ripened and he paid for it.

[Klein]

I don't think this is suicide because the intention was not to kill himself. It was an accident. Obviously his karma to die ripened and he took his own life while messing around with a gun. Life is very fragile.

Many people think that just because they are young and healthy, they will live for many more decades. There are so many ways to die it's really unpredictable. I have heard people choking on a chicken bone and died. Or slipping in the bathroom and died. Or as simple as a car accident or a plane crash.

None of us should take our lives for granted. That's why it's very important to engage in our spiritual practice because we never know when we're going die. And if we die, can we reincarnate in the human realm to continue our dharma practice?

We are all so unprepared for our death and our reincarnation, it's scary. Articles like this is good because it reminds us how fragile and unpredictable our lives are.

[pgdharma]

It is not a suicide. This is an accident and a fatal one. He was just fooling around without realizing that a joke could cost him his life. What he did was very stupid!

[RedLantern]

Really tragic! A valuable lesson to be more mindful in everything we do.This attitude is not wise and certainly not in keeping with the Buddhist attitude towards the importance of the human life.We shouldn't take life for granted but use it to benefit others.
This is definitely not an accident but an ignorant and careless act.

[Big Uncle]

A whole life of pursuing meaningless thrills has resulted in his death. This is so sad and meaningless to die in this manner. A whole life of enjoyment, boredom, excess and always looking for the next high. This guy would risk everything to get the thrill, the high of raising the stakes. Hence, it is not suicide as he has no intention but has miscalculated the risk involved in pursuit of an illusive feeling. A life of excess and mindless pursuit of frivolous fun. This is what happens when one does not have the Dharma.

[maricisun]

Life is precious. Do not take ice as a joke. And believe in Karma. You never know when your negative karma will ripen. Do more Dharma work to hopefully delay or lessen our negative karma to ripen unexpectedly,
He has so much life to live and so much to do but because of a silly joke he has to bear its cause and die at such a time when he is a rising star.
This is the results when one doesn't have the Dharma knowledge in him.

[metta girl]

Such a waste..... Life is wasted just because of a silly moment of fun....if he had some dharma knowledge, his negative karma would not have ripen so soon. He could have done more meaningful things to benefit others instead of playing Russian roulette.

[rossoneri]

Just do not understand why did he do it. Why bother taking that risk to even firing blanks to your head. Just plain stupidity which now also we have a reality TV program which shows people doing all those dangerous stunt whereby they might get injured and yet still doing it. Amazing, what do you get out of it? Moment of thrill maybe...that's it i guess...

[buddhalovely]

Our lives will have value to those who make the best out of it. This man is just plainly stupid to pull a stunt like that, why would anybody risk something as valuable as his own life, making decisions without surpassing his thoughts on the dire consequences. Our human brains are made to bring greatness into constructing a developed and stable country and environment, instead there are people spreading stupidity rather than intelligence ; exhibit A. We learn history in schools so that we DON'T repeat what has been done. Wow, i still cannot get over how stupid this guy is. Or it could be just karma, as everyone puts it. There's a reason for everything right? The time, place and how he died, could've been some what affected by his past life?

[fruven]

Definitely not suicide. It is recklessness or stupidity from not holding our life as precious. Is the consequences of self inflicted death the same? I think likely so. Imagine you're in front of Lord of Death. After the interrogation what would his verdict be? Not valuing life you killed yourself. You'll be punished for killing yourself.

[angelica]

This is not a suicide attempt. The actor is playing a games gambling on his precious life. His bad karma has ripened that killed him. Even if he didn't play this game, he might died of other ways.

This again remind us about impermanance and the preciousness of human life. We need to practice dharma NOW and not wait till such and such a date, as we do not know whether we will have a tomorrow. Hope that this incident can bring out a strong message to the public and make people wake up from their world and start dharma practice for own benefits and other beings.

[pinecone]

Is this what we term as “life is unpredictable”? Nowadays youth seemingly wanted to outrage each other by performing extreme act just for the sake of having fun.  These youngsters have never ever thought of the consequences of their actions. When the condition for one’s life force come to the end, causes of death could take any form “externally” to end the life of that particular individual .

[bambi]

Its amazing why people would play with such a joke. Majority of people always think that they will live long and nothing will happen to them so they will be fine. But they never thought the consequences would be severe.
I see a lot of videos on YouTube that shows things that people do to amuse others but when something goes wrong they suffer the consequences. I pity them for being so naive.
I dont know the karma of this prank but I do know that this is the result of his karma.