Max Heller was a student at Redding Prep and a friend of murder victim Donny Kendall, one of a group of friends who occasionally played a mock 'Russian Roulette' with each other. When they were playing this game one night in Central Park, Max shot Donny with a bullet which was still in the gun (presumed to have been from a recent occasion where Spencer, another of the group, provided them with real bullets so that they could shoot cans), causing Donny to die of his injuries.