Marine Fatally Shoots Himself; Police Probe Game of ‘Trust’ Line

A Marine who died at his barracks in Washington DC may have fatally shot himself in the head during a game of "Trust."

Lance Cpl. Cody S. Schoenfelder, 19, from South Dakota, died on Saturday at the Marine Barracks complex on Capitol Hill in what D.C. police say is being investigated as an accident.

There was a second Marine with Mr. Schoenfelder when he was shot inside a guard shack.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that a gun accidentally discharged as the Marines were playing the game "Trust," in which one person points a weapon at the other, according to the Washington Post.

Typically the game involves one Marine pretending to load a magazine into a weapon before pointing it at another’s head and saying, "Do you trust me?"

Upon receiving an answer, the Marine holding the gun either pulls the trigger or lowers the weapon. No bullets are to be fired.

DC police said that if Mr. Schoenfelder was killed while playing "Trust," then something went terribly awry for him to have shot himself.

Mr. Schoenfelder will be buried in his home town of Huron, a city with a population of 12,000 in South Dakota’s glacial lake and prairie region.