Pen-Gun Accident Kills Budding Rap Singer
Monday, December 5, 2005
(12-05) 17:20 PST ST. PARIS, Ohio (AP) --
Steven Zorn had put the pen gun to his head and clicked before, thinking it was jammed and would not work.
But on the third try, the tiny, silver pistol went off as the 22-year-old budding rap singer was drinking to celebrate an impending record deal. He died later at the hospital.
The shooting Nov. 18 at Zorn's home in this rural village of 2,000, about 50 miles northeast of Dayton. Family, friends and law enforcement officials believe it was accidental.
Family and friends said Zorn drove himself to succeed in the music world. He loved hip hop and wrote songs described as being filled with raw emotion. He taught himself to play the keyboard and record tracts using inexpensive software on his home computer.
"He could make a song out of anything," said friend Shane Hanes, with Zorn the night of the shooting.
Zorn tracked down rap artist Miracle in Georgia and urged the crunk artist to listen to a CD of his original recordings.
"The lyrical content was awesome," Miracle said. "He had a lot of skill. I took a liking to him, took him under my wing."
About a week before he died, a friend gave Zorn the pen gun with the .25-caliber bullet.
"This guy gave it to him with a jammed bullet in it," said Zorn's mother, Lisa McCoy-Horn.
She said that the night of the shooting, her son had been drinking and she confronted him about it. Later, Hanes and another friend joined Zorn in a small barn he had converted into his living quarters and sound studio.
"He walked up to his computer and pulled the pen gun out of his pocket and started playing with it," Hanes recalled. "I looked at him and said, 'Steve, you shouldn't be playing with that, that's a loaded gun.'"
When Champaign County sheriff's deputies arrived, they found Zorn shot in the head. He was taken to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, where he died.
"Steven had a career and his dreams all ahead of him," said McCoy-Horn. "But messing with these pen guns, these kids need to know that life can be taken in a blink of an eye."
McCoy-Horn wants to see pen guns outlawed. She said several schools have expressed interest in having her come to speak out against the weapons. And she would also like to take her message to the Legislature.
"I've cried and cried so much, but I'm mad now," McCoy-Horn said. "Something's got to be done."
