Teen Charged With Murder After 'Friends With Benefits' Partner Is Shot Dead in Russian Roulette Foreplay Game

A 19-year-old Virginia Beach woman now faces a grand jury after admitting to detectives that she shot her 26-year-old partner during a game of Russian roulette the pair were playing as part of consensual sexual foreplay.

Virginia Beach prosecutors formally charged Ember Rose McSpadden with involuntary manslaughter following the death of Shane Brooks, a National Guard veteran, in the early hours of 5 March 2026. A preliminary hearing on 14 August 2026 saw a judge certify the charge to a grand jury after hearing graphic testimony about how the shooting unfolded.

How a Russian Roulette Foreplay Game Turned Fatal

Virginia Beach Police Department officers responded to a report of a gunshot victim at 01:09 on 5 March 2026 in the 2600 block of Virginia Beach Boulevard, according to a VBPD press release. Officers arrived to find Brooks suffering from a gunshot wound; he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Detectives with VBPD's Homicide Unit identified McSpadden as the suspect and arrested her the same day. The department's preliminary investigation determined 'an unintended discharge of a firearm' led to Brooks's death, and McSpadden was charged with involuntary manslaughter, VBPD confirmed in its statement.

The investigating detective testified that McSpadden pulled the trigger three times, counting aloud between each click in an apparent attempt to track the cylinder's rotation, before the gun discharged on the third pull. An autopsy determined Brooks died from a single gunshot wound to the head, fired from beneath his chin.

McSpadden's Admission and the Couple's Brief Relationship

McSpadden told a detective during a police interview that she and Brooks were 'consensually partaking in rough foreplay with firearms' when the shooting occurred, according to court documents filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court. Detectives testified at the preliminary hearing that she was also the one who dialled 911 to report the shooting.

Detectives testified that McSpadden and Brooks had known each other for a short time, in what investigators described as a casual sexual relationship rather than an established partnership. Brooks's brother, Hunter Brooks, said the two had 'only known each other a couple, three months, maybe,' and that McSpadden had never previously visited Brooks's home before the night he died.

McSpadden's attorney, Artisha Gregg, has maintained throughout the proceedings that Brooks's death was a tragic accident that her client neither intended nor foresaw. McSpadden remains free on bond as the case moves toward grand jury review, where prosecutors will seek an indictment on the involuntary manslaughter charge.

Shane Brooks Remembered as 'Glue That Held Our Family Together'

Brooks was a graduate of Old Dominion University who had served a decade in the National Guard, including a combat tour in Iraq, according to his family's public statements. He was also an active member of Virginia Beach's North End Running Club and part of local gaming communities, friends and relatives said.

Hunter Brooks described the scale of the loss at the preliminary hearing, saying the courtroom overflowed with people who knew his brother. 'From the National Guard to his run club to gaming communities, we were taken aback,' he said, adding that 'there weren't enough seats in the courtroom for all the people that loved him.'

Family members have publicly described Brooks as the emotional centre of their household. He was remembered in the days following his death as the 'glue that held our family together.'

Shane Brooks's case remains an active homicide investigation as it proceeds toward a Virginia Beach grand jury.