Grand Theft Auto IV Blamed In Murder Case

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Grand Theft Auto IV Blamed In Murder Case


Police in Louisiana believe an eight-year-old boy who murdered his elderly caregiver was likely driven to do it by Grand Theft Auto IV.

87-year-old Marie Smothers was killed by a single gunshot to the back of the head fired by an eight-year-old boy in her care. There's no apparent motive for the killing and according to the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff's Department, "the victim and the juvenile had a normal, loving relationship, and even shared the same bedroom." So what drove the boy to commit murder?

At first he told police that he accidentally shot Smothers while he was playing with the gun (that she owned) but the investigation concluded that he actually shot her in the back of the head intentionally while she was watching television. His specific motives remain a mystery, but the police implied very strongly that a videogame - you know the one - was a causative factor.

"Although a motive for the shooting is unknown at this time investigators have learned that the juvenile suspect was playing a videogame on the Play Station III, Grand Theft Auto IV, a realistic game that has been associated with encouraging violence and awards points to players for killing people, just minutes before the homicide occurred," the sheriff's department said in a statement.

Fox13Now.com helpfully pointed out that debate over the connection between virtual and real-life violence has heated up since the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass murder last year, saying that "like many young males who went on shooting rampages in the past, the shooter, Adam Lanza, was reportedly obsessed with violent videogames." It also noted that "studies by reputable academic and medical sources have come to a variety of conclusions over the years," and that the Obama administration has called for further research.

Source: Fox13Now [http://fox13now.com/2013/08/25/police-8-year-old-intentionally-kills-his-grandmother/]


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Vaccine

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Andy Chalk said:
Police in Louisiana believe an eight-year-old boy who murdered his elderly caregiver was likely driven to do it by Grand Theft Auto IV.
eight-year-old boy
eight-year-old
Let us dwell on this for a moment shall we?

Oh, you're done? why the fuck did an eight-year-old have GTA4?

Or even worse, have easy access to guns and live ammunition?
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Vaccine said:
Andy Chalk said:
Police in Louisiana believe an eight-year-old boy who murdered his elderly caregiver was likely driven to do it by Grand Theft Auto IV.
eight-year-old boy
eight-year-old
Let us dwell on this for a moment shall we?

Oh, you're done? why the fuck did an eight-year-old have GTA4?
A better question is 'why was an 8 year old playing around with a loaded gun?'
 

Johnson McGee

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Nov 16, 2009
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I let my 8 year old play unsupervised with a loaded handgun. Video games are to blame for this tragedy!

Also: age appropriateness, gun culture, improper education on safe handling, etc. etc.
 

Antari

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If the game was a simple trigger for this kid to commit murder. Its likely he would have done it video game or not.
 

ShadowGandalf01

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So the first main point is this... WHY the HELL was an EIGHT YEAR OLD playing GRAND THEFT AUTO which VERY CLEARLY has a rating of EIGHTEEN+??!! There's a reason why games like this have ratings, because they aren't meant to be played by people younger than that. Now 15-16 year olds playing it? I can vaguely understand, but 8?!

Of course this is a tragic and horrible event and I can't imagine what the family and friends are going through right now, but GTA is not to blame. The blame lies with:
a) Whoever let him play a game he was 10 years too young for
b) Whoever left the gun within his reach
If you play a violent game then make the conscious decision to copy what you see, there's something clearly wrong with you to begin with.

Stories like this sadden me deeply.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Vaccine said:
Worgen said:
A better question is 'why was an 8 year old playing around with a loaded gun?'
You caught me, I edited it right after I posted. :(
Faster than the speed of editing, more powerful than nerd rage over Star Wars. ITS WORGEN!!!
 

Canadamus Prime

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Jun 17, 2009
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The first questions that come to my mind, why was the gun left out where the kid could get at it? And why was an 8 year old allowed to play Grand Theft Auto IV in the first place?
 

Zombie_Moogle

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Dec 25, 2008
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Plenty posts said it before I could.

Why... WHY is an 8yo playing with a friggin loaded pistol while the "caregiver" was watching TV; attentive guardian right there, as she apparently wasn't observant enough to notice the gun pointed at the back of her head. Maybe that's an unfair statement, but maybe GTA4 shouldn't be your babysitter
 

Pink Gregory

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"Awards points for killing people."

Funny how this always comes up in GTA-scapegoat cases, and GTA is perhaps the one mainstream game series that doesn't actually do this.
 

silverbullet1989

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Its easier to blame a video game because the parents don't want to take responsibility for clearly what is bad parenting
 

Maxtro

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If the boy was watching Friendship is Magic, right before he shot the old woman would they still try to blame the medium? Or would they actually blame the fact that he was handling a loaded weapon unsupervised?
 

Floppertje

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apart from the obvious questions that have been posed 10 times in this thread alone... how come they're latching onto video games again? isn't '8 year old kid has access to loaded gun' (i'm going to assume nobody told the kid how to load it himself) a better story than '8 year old kid plays games he should't'?
 

Doom972

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Dec 25, 2008
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"the victim and the juvenile had a normal, loving relationship, and even shared the same bedroom."
Is this kind of thing normal over there? It seems a bit suspicious. Could it be that he was being molested?

he was playing with the gun (that she owned)
Again, is this kind of thing normal over there? When I was in that age I had toy guns (mostly the kind that don't shoot any projectiles) and I used to pretend shoot people a lot. I would've probably thought it was a toy if I would've found it laying around and had done the same thing as a kid. The most violent game I had played at that time was Doom.

the juvenile suspect was playing a videogame on the Play Station III, Grand Theft Auto IV, a realistic game that has been associated with encouraging violence and awards points to players for killing people, just minutes before the homicide occurred
And this is the motive that seemed most likely? What about all the other under-aged gamers who play it and don't murder elderly caregivers? They should really fire those investigators.
 

Creator002

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a realistic game that has been associated with encouraging violence and awards points to players for killing people
As realistic as if you fall out of a car, you go flying a kilometer down the road as if you had a parachute.
Encourages violence by making the cops shoot to kill for punching someone lightly.
Points for killing? For God's sake, play the damn game before parroting the people who demonise it.

I've completed the story about four times and never seen a single bit of positive re-enforcement for killing innocents except for a measly sum of cash ($1-$100) that they only sometimes drop and in order to complete the story. More importantly, the story tries to show that the main character is haunted by the murder he did.[footnote]"Tries" because the gameplay doesn't really allow giving evidence that Niko's truly haunted by killing.[/footnote]
I think the more important issue should be how the eight-year old got access to a loaded weapon and, maybe, why he was allowed to play a (very high profile) game that's restricted to those 18 and older for purchase.
 

wrightguy0

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Dec 8, 2010
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why is the being classified as a murder? the child is 8 and doesn't understand the concepts of death, this is most likely an accident, that with more parental oversight could have been prevented.

Why was an 87 year old woman looking after an 8 year old boy? why was he allowed to play a game like GTA IV? and why was there a loaded handgun left unsecured and unsupervised?

those are the real questions that should be asked, and CPS should be involved because someone in that house was clearly negligent.