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BOY SHOOTS PARENTS OVER HALO 3
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17 Jun 2009, 07:23
RealLifeComics
Post Count: 571
How being prevented from playing a video game drove a sixteen year old to kill his parents.
What makes a 16 year old boy kill his parents? It would seem in this case video game addiction or is it really a case of a boy losing his temper because he could not get his own way? With dire consequences.

What makes a 16 year old boy kill his parents? It would seem in this case video game addiction or is it really a case of a boy losing his temper because he could not get his own way? With dire consequences.

Some of you may be unfamiliar with this case so here is a brief outline. Daniel Petric was raised in a religious family in Ohio. His father was a religious minister and by all accounts pretty careful ( some may even say a bit over cautious) about the kinds of entertainment his children were exposed to.

Daniel was involved in an accident the year he turned 16 and was confined to the house for months on end, during this period he apparently played a lot of games and watched a lot of TV, as you would, no surprise there. There was no suggestion of head injuries from this accident, it was a damaged leg which led to a staph infection.

The trouble started when Daniel’s father, Mark, decided that the Halo series of games that Daniel was particularly fond of were too sexually graphic. Daniel was barred by his father from playing Halo 3 at home, he used to go to a friends house and play the game for up to eight hours straight. Things went very wrong one night when Mark Petric caught his son trying to sneak a copy of the title into the house. Mark took the game from Daniel and locked it in the box he used to keep his handgun safe.Unfortunately Daniel apparently knew where the key was and retrieved the game and the gun. He took the gun into the room his parents were sitting in and told them, chillingly, to close their eyes because he had a surprise for them, then he shot them both. His mother was killed and his father suffered a severe head injury. There is something even more heartbreaking about the way Mark Petric testified that he closed his eyes expecting a nice surprise from his son only to feel his head go numb from the bullet he had been shot with.

Daniel was recently convicted of this crime after the court rejected his plea of insanity.

There is much conjecture over why Daniel would do such a thing. The judge seemed to think too long in the fantasy world of Halo 3 had warped his mind. He seems to suggest that because the aliens you shoot at in the game always come back to be shot again, Daniel was unaware that his parents would be dead forever.

Predictably these comment have caused huge outcry in the gaming world. The general gist of these is that it stretches creditability to suggest that a sixteen year old boy had such a poor understanding of the concept of death. Especially since two court experts had ruled that Daniel did not have a disease or defect of the mind.

So what made him do it? No one seems to know. He clearly comes from a family that loves him and maybe that is the most disturbing aspect of this case. His grandfather has said about Daniel “He has been a loving boy all his life”. He was not a stupid person either maintaining a very middle of the road grade point average at school.

His family say that Daniel has been forgiven by them and God. In court Mark Petric looked at Daniel and said “You are my son, my boy”. It must have been a heartbreaking picture.

Daniel Petric will be sentenced next month.


SCOPE PRESS

Halo 3 sexually graphic??
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17 Jun 2009, 10:47
Jessica [Private]
Post Count: 1751
....Halo is so not sexually graphic. wtf?

Nerd Rage, much? =/
Sheesh.
Kid needs to get out a little more.
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17 Jun 2009, 14:48
Chris
Post Count: 1938
Well I guess he's NOT going to get out much anymore, amirite?
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17 Jun 2009, 20:10
Jessica [Private]
Post Count: 1751
ikr?
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17 Jun 2009, 16:06
*~Loving You~*
Post Count: 507
..seriously?? Halo 3? Jeez that's a game that's so "old" been out for a long time a few yrs I'm sure and 2ndly I've played it its a short game my finacee was done with it within a week with breaks cuz of work n me...

That boy is crazy! I hope he's sent in a metal insitution perhaps there's a gamer annoymous! Lol

That game is volience (such as shooting 2 kill) but sexually graphic -- no
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17 Jun 2009, 17:36
Acid Fairy
Post Count: 1849
'What makes a 16 year old boy kill his parents?'

Being a fucking RETARD.
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18 Jun 2009, 02:47
Beautiful Lies
Post Count: 402
Took the words right outta my mouth!

This is why I hate children (among other reasons).
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17 Jun 2009, 17:45
Mary Magdelene
Post Count: 506
"He seems to suggest that because the aliens you shoot at in the game always come back to be shot again, Daniel was unaware that his parents would be dead forever"

I call bullshit. He's 16 years old. He knew full well that his parents would be dead forever. That's exactly what he intended. A five year old thinking that I might be able to understand, but a 16 year old? Nope, sorry. By the time you reach eight years old you tend to know that dead is dead and they're not coming back. And even if you don't know that by eight, you certainly do know that by 16.

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17 Jun 2009, 07:34
♥bruisedroses
Post Count: 30
I dont think the Halo3 is sexually graphic.

However, the idea of not able to differentiate between fantasy and reality could happen to anyone regardless of age. Video games also increase violence in society. It could have been the case whereby Daniel really have a poor understanding of the concept of death.

I pity the parents.
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17 Jun 2009, 09:31
RealLifeComics
Post Count: 571
He must of had a LOT of vent up anger at the time. Unluckily when he finally had enough, he had a gun in his hand.
It's such a shame, his parents were so overprotective it all kinda back fired.
I don't think video games are fully to blame here
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17 Jun 2009, 17:49
Mary Magdelene
Post Count: 506
Surely you're not suggesting that his parents over-protection of his is even partially to blame for this? If I'm incorrect in that assumption, please forgive me.

I don't think the video game is to blame at all here. I also don't believe the parents protective nature is to blame at all here. The boy was 16 years old, he knew that shooting them meant killing them. He knew full well they would die and remain dead and not come back to life like the bad guys in the games do. He knew. He just let his temper get the best of him. The ONLY party to blame here is the son.
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18 Jun 2009, 01:09
RealLifeComics
Post Count: 571
Chances are that if his parents had taught him about death, he would have shot them anyways, so YES the kid is to blame. Still there's that little chance that if his parents had sat down with his kid and spent some time playing the game with him and explained how death really works, he might have thought twice about shooting them. I'm only going off what the article says. It IS really silly for any kid to think that way about death and it's hard to believe, but we live in a crazy world so it doesn't surprise me.

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17 Jun 2009, 09:30
.love.struck.
Post Count: 492
"Daniel was recently convicted of this crime after the court rejected his plea of insanity."

I hate when people use the plea of insanity to get out of things. This is a clear case it was personal. Wow!
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17 Jun 2009, 09:35
RealLifeComics
Post Count: 571
Insanity! what a load of crap!
The kid went into the safe got the game AND the gun, told his parents to shut their eyes and shot them!
I thought insane people went INSANE and stabbed/shot people a multiple times!
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17 Jun 2009, 13:28
panda bear.
Post Count: 150
A plea of insanity claims that the person wasn't in their right mind. It doesn't necessarily mean that the person who is indeed insane screams and flails, declaring such insanity and then killing everyone around them. It just means that the thoughts going through his mind weren't his normal thoughts, they were crazy thoughts. They weren't necessarily things he was saying or doing out loud before he were to shoot his parents.

I think his plea of insanity is bullshit. He was a greedy 16 year old that wasn't allowed to play a video game he really liked. So he sought out consequences for his parents.

And as for sexually graphic... the only thing I can think about in Halo 3 that is sexually graphic, is when you kill someone and tea bag their corpse. Sexual innuendo's can be offensive to some people, and if I read correctly, the father was a Minister? He probably saw his kid doing it / heard his kid talking about it and decided it wasn't something he wanted his kid playing. Understandable. Although I think the father should have taken away the video game because of violence before giving the excuse that it's sexually graphic.
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17 Jun 2009, 13:39
& skull.
Post Count: 1701
more fodder for the people that think video games are killing everyone.

certain people shouldn't play games. this kid was clearly one of them. if you can't control your anger, or separate reality from fiction, then tv/movies/games/books aren't for you. maybe go play a sport or something.
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17 Jun 2009, 14:42
mixie
Post Count: 196
This has nothing to do with video games warping your mind. Even though his parents loved him and had a good moral foundation based on religion, they apparently didn't spend enough time teaching him WHY they restrict him from that type of media, and moreover, obviously didn't teach him how to manage his anger effectively.
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17 Jun 2009, 15:47
& skull.
Post Count: 1701
this.
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