A 22-year-old Oklahoma man celebrating his upcoming wedding is facing a second-degree murder charge after allegedly shooting and killing his close friend during a bachelor party at a short-term rental cabin.

According to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and court records, authorities were called to a rural residential property in McCurtain County around 1 a.m. after a report of a suspicious death. When deputies and medical personnel arrived, they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound and encountered Nolan Dain Engel, who identified himself as the shooter.

Investigators say Engel told them he and three friends had rented an Airbnb-style cabin for his bachelor party. The group had reportedly been drinking and socializing when they heard a noise outside and noticed what appeared to be a shadow moving near the property.

Engel allegedly retrieved a 9mm handgun and fired a single round toward the shadow from inside or near the cabin, believing he was responding to a possible intruder. After discharging the weapon, he stepped outside to investigate and discovered that the person he had shot was his friend and groomsman, 21-year-old Braden Uhlmann.

First responders attempted life-saving measures before Uhlmann was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was later pronounced dead from his injuries. Authorities have not publicly detailed how far Uhlmann was from the cabin when he was shot or why he was in the line of fire.

OSBI agents processed the scene, collecting ballistic evidence and interviewing witnesses. Investigators said physical evidence and witness statements were consistent with Engel’s account that he fired toward an unidentified figure he believed to be outside the cabin, only to realize it was his friend.

Engel was taken into custody and booked on a charge of second-degree murder, which in Oklahoma can apply when a person acts in a manner deemed imminently dangerous to others without regard for human life. Prosecutors will likely focus on Engel’s decision to fire blindly into the dark, while his defense may argue that he acted out of fear in what he believed was a self-defense situation.

The incident has stunned the local community and left two families shattered: one grieving the loss of a young man described by friends as outgoing and loyal, the other grappling with the reality that a groom-to-be now faces years in prison over a fatal split-second decision.