When Chris Lane set off for a run on a stifling hot Oklahoma afternoon his aim was simply to work on his fitness for the baseball season ahead, but his murder from the bullet of an assassin set off a media tsunami that threatened to engulf US President Barack Obama.
The shooting took place just before 2.57pm on August 16, a Friday, in the southern Oklahoma city of Duncan.
The local newspaper, the Duncan Banner, was quickly on the story.
Just one other murder had taken place in the city the previous five years so it was big news for its 25,000 residents, although the Banner newsroom was rightly unaware just what a big story Mr Lane's death would become.
A day later the news of Mr Lane's murder, and the arrest of James Edwards, 15, Chancey Luna, 16, and Michael Jones, 17, was discovered by the Australian media.
"They wanted to be Billy Bob Badasses," Duncan police chief Danny Ford, when asked what he believed motivated the boys to randomly target Mr Lane in a drive-by shooting, told AAP.
Two days after the murder US-based correspondents from Australian media organisations converged on Duncan.
Mr Lane's death may have been news at the Duncan Banner and in Australia, but it was yet to become a story across the US.
Three days after the murder, on the Monday, Edwards, Luna and Jones were expected to make their first court appearance in the morning at the Stephens County courthouse.
The arraignment was then pushed back to 1.30pm.
As the Australian media members sat around the courthouse for the arraignment with a reporter from the Banner and just one other TV reporter from Oklahoma City, an upset woman in a pink shirt approached.
She told us her name was Jennifer Luna, mother of Chancey.
Soon after a thin man in a black t-shirt seemed lost as he walked around the courthouse.
He introduced himself as James Edwards Sr, father of the youngest accused.
The parents spoke about their sons.
They defended them, but also left open the possibility that, yes, just as police suggested, the boys could have been responsible for Mr Lane's death.
As 1.30pm approached a second TV reporter from an Oklahoma City station arrived.
"I don't know why I'm here," she told the reporters.
"It's not even a big story."
When the District Attorney's office announced the arraignment would be delayed until the next day, the reporters scattered, but soon the story exploded worldwide.
Chief Ford told US news agency Associated Press one of the accused boys had revealed a motive.
"The boy who has talked to us said: 'We were bored and didn't have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody'," Chief Ford told AP.
Chief Ford would also say the boys wanted to kill someone "for the fun of it".
The Billy Badasses suddenly became bored Billy Badass thrill-killers.
The AP story was picked up by every US news organisation.
The next day when the boys shuffled into court in wrist and leg irons, there were representatives from more than 30 news organisations at the courthouse, forcing Stephens County sheriffs to move the arraignment to the building's largest courtroom.
More petrol was about to be added to the fire.
District Attorney Jason Hicks announced during the arraignment the boys would be tried as adults - allowing the media to name and show the boys' mug shots and photos from their Facebook, Twitter and other social media postings.
The world saw what the boys looked like.
Some quickly labelled it a black on white crime.
Race was now an issue.
Right wing American media members, led by radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh, began calling out Mr Obama for being hypocritical.
A month earlier the president spoke publicly about the acquittal of Florida neighbourhood watch co-ordinator George Zimmerman of the second-degree murder and manslaughter of 17-year-old African American high school student Trayvon Martin.
"Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago," Mr Obama said during his emotional, 20 minute speech.
Mr Limbaugh and other pro-Republican Party commentators asked why Mr Obama and other civil rights leaders, including Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, were not talking about Mr Lane's murder.
"This is Trayvon Martin in reverse," Limbaugh told his listeners.
At a White House press conference on the Wednesday after Mr Lane's death Mr Obama's spokesman, Josh Earnest, was asked about Mr Lane and he said he was not aware of the case.
That stoked the anti-Obama fires.
Mr Obama's office did eventually release a statement announcing his and the "first lady's thoughts and prayers are with Chris Lane's family and friends in these trying times" while Rev Jackson and Sharpton also weighed in.
But, the right's fight to make Mr Lane's death an issue for Mr Obama ignored the fact that Luna's mother, the lost soul at the courthouse, was white and Jones was white.
Prosecutors also announced there was no evidence race played a role in Mr Lane's murder.
Chief Ford said the same.
It was as clear as black and white.
