Posted on 08/24/2013 12:45:23 PM PDT by smokingfrog
An eight-year-old boy who allegedly shot dead his 87-year-old caregiver with her own gun had played a violent video game that awards points for killing people just minutes earlier.
The boy, who has not been identified, was playing Grand Theft Auto IV before shooting relative Marie Smothers in the back of the head as she watched television in her Louisiana mobile home on Thursday night.
The boy won't be charged for shooting Smothers, pronounced dead at the scene, because of his age.
The Colt .38-caliber Detective Special revolver he used belonged to Smothers, who lived in the Country Breeze Mobile Home Park near Slaughter, but it's not clear where she kept it, The Advocate reports.
He is now in the care of his parents, from East Baton Rouge Parish.
They have been ordered to appear in 20th Judicial District Court on Monday, The Advocate reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Boy, 8, 'intentionally shot his 87-year-old grandmother in the back of the head after playing violent video game Grand Theft Auto then tried to claim her death was an accident'
Yeah a back to the head shot is usually a accident! What a bunch of BS. where was the gun to begin with?
Yieks. Not a good week for the over 80’s crowd. FREEPERS over 80 please stay safe.
No correlation. Just a coincidence.
So, how many points did he get for the shooting?
The trigger I would think would require more finger pressure than this kid could exhibit and still hit the target.
I guess I made the right decision not to allow my gaming son to play any mature games until he was 17. Now that I think of it, with him being a strong-willed child, I wonder how I won that battle year after year. Even at 18 it was only zombies and aliens he could take out. Now that he’s been to Afghanistan he won’t play the games.
The perverse bright side is this wasn’t another black-on-white hate murder.
Poor Grandmother...made it to 87 only to be killed by your own grandson. At least it was mercifully instantaneous.
We didn’t allow GTA in our house...in fact, no video game at all until our youngest was 18 and going away to college.
Typically about a 12lb trigger pull double action or 4lb single action. An 8 year old could certainly do it.
Do they shoot people execution style in GTA? I’m guessing they probably do.
Yep.
You can also pick up a hooker and kill/rob her when your done, such a great role model for kids. not.
At 8 years old I knew not to shoot someone in the back of the head.
In my day the evil games were “Mortal Kombat” and “Lethal Enforcers.” Later it was Doom and Wolfenstein. I wouldn’t let an 8 year play those either.
I think I already owned at least one gun by the time I was 8.
Extra points for degree of difficulty?
They have been ordered to appear in 20th Judicial District Court on Monday,
Also, they are looking for a babysitter while they are in court, if anyone is interested.
You bad.
I chuckled; me bad.
RIP, Mrs Smothers.
When my youngest grandson is visiting one of the things he looks forward to doing is spending time with the XBox. He has every auto racing game ever made and can sit for hours choosing, tinkering with and redesigning one car. Maybe one lap around the track or road course to see how it performs and then back to the tinker stage again. He has learned a lot about wind shear, aerodynamic design and application of mathematical information in the process.
He knows everything there is to know about every car made and wants to go to Europe and design cars after college. We do have one other game - Tetris - which he calls the Grandma game. Did talk him into playing once but never again.
We have guns in the house but no games with guns nor would I allow any either.
There's the key........
I am no fan of video games for children, period!
Because we had no video games, the kids spent all their time outdoors with friends and pick-up games of various sports. I don’t regret keeping the games out of the house one bit. My son bought his own xbox at 18, took it to college, and sold it after only two years. I was very impressed with that decision.
To each his own.
The parents could likely be partly to blame. Maybe they often left the boy with his grandmother and he disliked being there with someone so elderly.
Or the boy could have evil tendencies. One of my nephews, when very young, was like that. He’d be at a family get-together at a wealthy relative’s home, and mention to his cousins he was wondering what he should break. And he did break stuff. Now he’s a late teen, and into gang activities.
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