Hm, she's good-looking too...

Everything in life is imitatable. People who watched Jackass would go do the same stunts. Most people have some sort of judgment that comes into play. And, like the article clearly states, at least one of them was drunk.

Also, Babality?

@Timothy Watson


my my my

Sounds more like GodHand

Damnit, just what we need, the stereotype "babysitter invites drunken boyfriend over" gets increased to "... and kills child". Cant believe those stupid kids. Besides the fact that Mortal Combat is a horrible thing to even consider playing with a SEVEN yearold, to be drunk doing it is just moronic and idiotic. I feel ashamed of my age group. (15-19)

Jack Thompson blaming the games in 5...4...3...2...1

I'm curious as to what actually caused the girl's death, because none of the stuff in the article sounds even remotely fatal. There's more to this story then what we are getting.

Considering how long Mortal Kmobat has been around, I don't think this is going to be as big a deal as some might fear. The MK franchise has been around for more than 10 years now and only now does it get linked to a murder (however tenuously)? You might as well blame Three Stooges shorts or Tom and Jerry cartoons.

This has the same air about it as the case where two teens killed a younger child and later claimed they were imitating pro wrestling (please cite the source for me). If I recall, that defense was thrown out. And considering what we saw yesterday, I seriously doubt this will have anywhere near as big an impact.

I almost have no words. I have a young daughter. The story gives a brief mention of alchohol then goes in depth on Games. I'm just saddened and sickened all over.

@Black Manta

"The MK franchise has been around for more than 10 years now and only now does it get linked to a murder (however tenuously)? You might as well blame Three Stooges shorts or Tom and Jerry cartoons."

Actually, MK being blamed in murder cases is nothing new. Apparently in New Deli, years ago, children playfighting, one accidently broke the others neck. So they hid the body in the river and blamed Mortal Kombat. Fortunately, that excuse didn't work then either.

All they really have to do is show game footage. This sounds like a drunken savage beating, nothing like the game.

@shoehorn o'plenty
"If a teen got drunk and jumped from a 5 story window because they claimed they were playing “superman”, there would be no backlash against the comic character."

A Comic Code Authority says what? Early Superman comics were excessively violent as were other early books. Unfortunately, to avoid government regulation, the comic industry established the CCA in the US. A system sooo strict and ridiculously hindering that Asia and Europe comics were quickly advancing and the US comics would take years before they caught up. All because of what you mentioned. Imitatable acts.

Unfortunately, gaming is the new comic books. It will pass eventually and then the gaming industry equivelant of Lobo will look pretty tame.

What I'd like to know is who referenced Mortal Kombat in the original news release.

All is says in the original text is that an affidavit was filed - so was it Lamar, Heather, or somebody else who stated the aforementioned info?

So what? Sorry about the kid, but who can actually prove it was MK?

Maybe it was wrestling, martial arts, Olympics, American Gladiator, or a million other things that simulate or feature real life combat.

Or it could've been nothing except for the fact that the killers were really screwed up in the head and had some sort of genetic pre-dispositiion to sadism.

But hey, they're just talkin bout MK for the sensationalism.

Case in point: just a few minutes ago I saw a segment on MSNBC talking about this case and all they did was show film of MK.

Some of the MK film was from the original 1992/1993 game!!!!!!!!

Glad to see that there is no shortage of "blame the game" crowd posting comments on the news article.

Here's the thing that bothers me...

Some people may think I'm anti-video game for this, but nothing could be further from the truth. I own all 3 major consoles, and I currently have no less than 7 systems hooked up to my TV. I'm a diehard gamer, but the fact of the matter is that these two teens ADMITTED they were acting out a video game, yet people still deny it.

Nobody seems sorry about what happened - they're just worried about how it will affect video games and what Jack Thompson will say. Who really gives a crap? There's a dead child, for God's sake!

All anybody seems worried about it whether or not they can link it to MK or whether or not people will take into account the fact that the murderers were drunk, and honestly, that's just as sickening as Jack Thompson's anti-game stance. It shows gamers as heartless, thoughtless zealots - which isn't that too far off from Thompson and his crusade.

I want to say first and foremost that I am deeply saddened to hear what happened to this little girl. What she must have been experiencing and how she passed makes me burn with rage and sorrow...

@Jeddy3 - I was with you for most of your post. As you pointed out, there are few posts showing sympathy for the girl and what she had to go through. There are, however, far too many posts trying to push the blame: parents, alcohol, video games, etc.

Who is entirely at fault? Obviously those that committed the crime. Blame, at this point, is irrelevant because two young lives are now ruined, and one innocent life is lost completely.

The comments in that article are nerve-wrecking. I guess GP's comment level really is post grad.

@Jeddy3:

I agree with you. Because the issue of video game violence is handled completely wrong by politicians doesn't mean it isn't a real issue. A lot of the stories about video games influencing people to commit crimes are nonsense but cases like this can't just be ignored.

Jeddy is right. People here, save one, care more about the PR problem this will cause for gaming than the fact that some little girl out there just got fatalitied by some mother^&ckers who need to get their eyes scooped out of their heads.

And yes, consider the fact that this is a seven (?) year old girl we're talking about, it doesn't take a heck of a lot of drop-kicks before she gets her internal organs reorganized.

here we go again

That's funny, I don't remember beating up a kid in any mortal kombat game. I also don't remember every being able to 'pinch' my enemies.

So I call bullshit on this stupid bitch.

@Jeddy3

You're right - The point here is that some poor kid was killed due to the reckless stupidity of two young adults. Be it video games or alchohol, somebody died. The fact that she was beatn to death only makes this case all the more horrid

@E.Z.K. It's like I said before. In this instance, screw the fact that they were drunk or were acting like idiots. It is the video games fault no matter what. Those will be the words of good ol' John Bruce and those like him.

Remember the incident with Pro Wrestling a few years back where a guy killed his younger brother from immitating wrestling moves on him? Screw the fact that he didn't know how to perform them correctly or was doing it to someone literally half his size, it's all pro wrestlings fault.

Did the promotion he watched specifically tell him to go out and do it too his little brother? No. Did mortal kombat specifically tell these two idiots to go out and try to perform a fatality on the kids they were babysitting? No one that count as well.

Am I getting through to anyone here?

Let's see, you have a sixteen year old girl and a seventeen year old boy, drinking. Supposedly they were babysitting the girls little sister. People have already pointed out a number of things wrong with this, but lets continue.
Who came up with the Mortal Kombat angle?
None of the quotes from the witnessess show it. It says it shows up in the court documents.
Then, at the bottom of that article, is another one from The Greeley Tribune trying to pin the entire blame on Mortal Kombat. To be honest, back in the day it was pretty violent. I never played it growing up, but that's because I preferred SFII. However, MK isn't even a blip on the radar right now. That's why I wonder where they got the MK angle from.

Next, this article SHOULD be about a 17 year old getting drunk and, well, lets quote the article:
The witness said Roberts performed a back kick and the girl didn't get up. He said he and Trujillo "cracked an egg in her mouth . . . in an attempt to see if she was messing around with them" by faking unconsciousness.

Because in ALL the medical shows, cracking a raw egg into a little girls mouth after you kicked her unconcious is the best was to check if she is faking.

This guy is 17, SEVENTEEN. Then again, if they try claiming 24 year olds as children when it comes to videogame related violence.

This was a tradgedy, and it shouldn't have happened. However trying to blame a game that hasn't been released for years (actually, I have NO IDEA when the last MK game was out, it isn't really on any screens right now) smacks of a NON-GAMER trying to come up with a scape goat to blame his actions on.

This is indeed a tragedy, because of the actions of two foolish people a life has been taken.
First and foremost is the drinking, the accused said "I don't know I was drunk," this is not an excuse this is stupidity at its finest. Not only did his actions take a life but his inaction of calling the paramedics made it worse. And cracking an egg to see if she was faking? I don't remember being taught that in First Aid class.
If the two "Babysitters" had simply got drunk (or not had a drink in the first place) and fought each other this tragedy could have been averted, they would simply have headaches this morning, instead a family will mourn the loss of a child who's life has been extinguished far too soon.
Simply put the game industry is not to blame for this crime the only ones to blame are the ones that blatantly murdered this little girl.
GameHeretic

"Roberts, apparently drunk,"

"Roberts, apparently drunk,"

"Roberts, apparently drunk,"

"Roberts, apparently drunk,"

"APPARENTLY DRUNK"

Lemme get this straight. a DRUNK 17 year old, KICKED A 7-YEAR OLD CHILD. and VIDEOGAMES are being hold responsible?


I hold the PARENTS responsible. if the child was DRUNK then that's the first problem right there. HOW did she get access to alochol?

I hold the TEENS responsible. YOU ACTED OUT VIOLENCE UPON A CHILD YOU WERE BABYSITTING. IF YOU WERE DRINKING, THAT MAKES IT EVEN WORSE.

people like this DESERVE to be locked up, to prevent this from happening again.

@Mort
I second that. Midway as well as the entire ESA should sue the pants off these two for slander.

Clearly if it was Mortal Kombat they were imitating, then that's what's to blame! Obviously not the fact that they were drinking underage while babysitting!

To clarify, I don't think Midway and ESA should go after the kids. I do think however that these kids don't care about any damage they cause to anyone else if it helps them get lesser sentences. Out for themselves, screw everyone else.

A kid gets DRUNK and beats a girl to death and this will somehow be related back to video games? Christ the world is a strange place

I believe there's something more there me and my younger brother we've wrestled each other countless times but were lways smart enough to know it was for fun. and never attempted to injure or even urt each other. there's a difference in fighting for fun and fighting in a way that kills people. And "I don't know I was drunk" just sound plain stupid to me. mentally ill stupid to me or "I'm trying to cover up the real story with a dumb cover up stupid.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn all this videogame imitating stuff is cover up by the teens for someting else far worse.

You know Mortal Kombat was also a 2hr, non stop "martial arts fighting" MOVIE....but I'm sure no reference to THAT will be mentioned. Especially how its easier to get that than the game now a days.

@ BaronJuJu

Actually, it was a couple of movies, line of action figures, music cds, comic books, and a TV show. Sure I'm actually forgetting some extras there, but you get the point.

What idiots. I hate it when stupid, easily preventable shit like this happens due to the stupidity and carelessness of others. You don't drink when you're farking babysitting! Send them to Guantanamo Bay or something. I hope they get tried as adults.

@JustAnotherLass

Agreed, people seem to be losing focus of the fact that this was NOT a deliberate act, these kids are going to have live with their stupidity for the rest of their lives, they aren't the first kids to accidentally kill one of their group whilst fooling around, nor will they be the last.

I feel sad that a 7-year old died, its a terrible event, there's no doubt of that, but the whole culture of 'someone is responsible for everything' is getting silly. They were drunk by the looks of things, which is often a contributor in tragedies such as this, and they lost track of where the line was, the result was heart-breaking. Whilst the ultimate responsibility of the act falls onto those who struck the blows, people need to keep in focus that it was an accident, not a murder, they weren't trying to kill the girl, they were playing and something went too far and someone died.

It's a tragedy that has been repeated for thousands of years, both in reality and in stories.

So they admit that they were influenced by Mortal Kombat. Fair enough. Of course, if they knew they were acting out the game then they were aware of what they were doing when they were doing it. It was a conscious decision to beat someone up. Two possibilities then:

They didn't intend it to go that far, in which case the alcohol is probably the culprit for clouding their judgment. How much is the beverage industry going to be attacked for this?

They intended it to go how it did, in which case it's premeditated assault inspired by Mortal Kombat. Question for the panel: If person A copycats previous killer B, is B in trouble?

We have a sick crime here and they're doing what kids do. They're not trying to *blame* Mortal Kombat, they're trying to *excuse* themselves.

(Aside: "Roberts said he cracked an egg in her mouth[...]" Would anyone else have thought of doing that?)

[...] Supposedly murder because of stupid drunk teenagers imitating Mortal Kombat [...]

Let's not forget the 7-year-old in question has a history of suspicion of abuse at the hands of, get this, the 17-year-old who ninja kicked her to death.

"Roberts, apparently drunk..."

This story should read, "teen kills girl while under the influence of alchohol."

Welcome to the culture of economically censored and Christian biggoted video game manipulation. We're playing the most watered down and childish crap concieveable and stories like this only make it less offensive and more "kid safe" (although such games are intended for adults in the first place).

 EZK: This is not a religious discussion. Please do not try to make it one.

It's rare for anyone to accept responsability for their actions, let alone a teenager who's gotten drunk and killed her friends sister. They are doing what kids always do when they get into trouble, that's lie their asses off in order to deflect blame.

The death is tragic but it's got about as much to do with Mortal Kombat, as it does with Jackie Chan's Drunken Master movie, or the millions of other martial arts books, movies, and training videos that have been released over the years.

As for us caring more about the PR problem.... This is "Gamepolitics.com" not "IJustLostMyKidInATragicEvent.com" the lies that are being told in order to deflect blame hurt in an effort to save their butts hurts the game industry and adds fuel to the fires of those media crusaders like J.T. who will use this as an example of "How games cause violence".

We aren't unsympathetic to the loss of a child. However there is little we can do to remedy that loss. In my mind the only way to do it would be to make sure that this childs killers are put to justice. And we don't do that by allowing the killers to lie about why they did what they did and point the finger at someone else (games/movies/etc) when they know darn well that they are the ones responsible.

Your report says "apparantly drunk". There's no apparantly about it. Lamar's report to police stated that he was drunk. not drinking, drunk!

Roberts, apparently drunk, kicked the little girl.
Roberts, drunk, kicked the little girl.
drunk, kicked the little girl.
drunk, kicked the girl.
drunk, kicked girl.
drunk, kicked
drunk,

Hey question..sence they wheren't intending to kill the little girl. But still beat her to death.

Is this like invonlintary manslaughter with like assult and battery?

I know it's a whole different charge it people intended to kill or plot for it.

Compaired to an "accdent"....though they sure seem intended on beating this little girl up....

@Tale:

The term "Lethal Weapon" didn't stem from the movie originally. Sure, the title of the movie comes from the fact that Murtaugh tells Riggs he should be considered a lethal weapon, but that's not the origination of the phrase.

Okay there was a history of abuse toward this child, and yet they want to blame video games?

my thoughts are with the mother. what a terrible thing, to lose a child.

This is truly a sad, sad story. The thought that video games might somehow get the finger pointed at them for causing this tragedy is irresponsible and stupid.

First, we got an underage minor teenage baby sitter and her boyfriend... DRUNK!

Second, apparently the girl they were looking after had a history of abuse, whether within or from outside the family.

Third, I keep thinking back to the old urban legend of a stoned family cooking their baby while under the influence of illegal narcotics.

I think there's a lot of blame to go around, but to pin it entirely on Mortal Kombat, or say that it even partly on Mortal Kombat, is ridiculous.

It could have been Power Rangers...
It could have been WWE Wrestling...
It could have been TNA Impact...
It could have been a Martial Arts movie...
It could have been ANYTHING!

The fact of the matter is that while inebriated, those kids committed murder by beating up a 7-year old girl.

I'd want those kids to live out their lives in jail for this crime! (I'd say fry, but I think growing up and spending the rest of their lives is more humane while being crueler at the same time!)

Furthermore, I want to know what the parents were doing about this? Had they not heard reports that this sitter's boyfriend had abused the girl once before?

And then there's the fact that they were drunk! DRUNK!

Drunk, underage minors committing murder!

It's obscene!

To try and drag video games into this case of clear cut abuse and child neglect is a TRAVESTY! There is no reason why the finger shouldn't be pointed DIRECTLY at the sitter, her boyfriend, and also the child's family.

This isn't about video games! It's about two morally irresponsible teenagers committing a hideous crime and a family who, from preliminary reports, seemed to allow the kind of behavior that led up to this.

To bring video games into this is just a tactic by the media or politicians that want to overly sensationalize this and try and use it for a personal agenda.

And that's almost, if not more, disgusting than the actual murder.

~Otaku-Man

@ Otaku
My good man, the videogame issue was brought in by the babysitters. They're trying to weasel out of killing a child by blaming it on videogames.

This man is no martial artsist.

I'm a fucking martial artist, and all the times I've been drinking I've never killed or injured anyone.

This is just 2 assholes trying to place blame on videogames.

@Weighted Companion Cube

Never said it was the origin of the phrase. However, what the male defendent said is obviously related to what Murtaugh said. Not the phrase "lethal weapon" but the phrase relating to having your own person be registered as one.

I heard about this story from a CNN alert. A teen only a year away from legally being considered a man BEATS a CHILD to DEATH, while her own sister did nothing. If I read the story right, it sounds like the boy originally tried to claim only the sister had wrestled with her. Any excuse to save his own hide...
I can't even imagine how the mother feels, loosing a daughter and knowing your other child had a hand in it?

The article doesn't say how the prosecutors came up with the Mortal Kombat connection. Did the murderers just confess to imitating the game?

...Being 17 years old makes me want to have a *facepalm'd* moment right now.

Why do jackasses think it's a good idea to rough-around with little kids? For god's sake you can kill a kid with a gentle poke to the noggin. NeverthelessI need to get this out of the way...

Don't blame the alcohol.
Don't blame the video games.
Don't fucking blame ANYTHING.

Stupid punks, being 17 myself I can understand the "art of shifting blame" (Then again, I never have a need to do so, and most of the time I just flat-out say "it's my fault"...). They can go rot in jail for all I care. They decide to drink, underage...and while being drunk, horse around with a 7-year-old child. What a bunch of moronic bullshit.

...And of course, all the blame will be shifted onto games. Not even the alcohol (Well not that the alcohol matters, their moronic thinking is to blame and nothing more). Man, I can prove right here these guys have shit for brains.

"He said he and Trujillo "cracked an egg in her mouth . . . in an attempt to see if she was messing around with them" by faking unconsciousness."

Oh that's real genius. Real damn genius.

Well this is damn wonderful. Because of this crap, the game industry just took a huge blow to the groin. I just hope people can understand that you need to stop believing the actions people do is caused by something else.

Man-up and take responsibility. Either way, you're going to jail unless you have Johnnie Cochran as your lawyer. (But that's not possible as of 2007)

Oh and...

@17-A
"As punishment, we summon Prince Goro out of his palace in Outworld and see how the drunken jackass does against him.

(Or Zombie Liu Kang. I’m not picky.)"

Bo-Rai-Cho, He's drunk and a MK character. (...Oh snap JT moment kicked in. *MORTAL KOMBAT SUPPORTS VIOLENCE AND DRINKING*)

They were drinking UNDERAGE!! That alone causes more immediate harm than a video game does!

JT tells kids its okay to blame videogames for your misdeeds, so they decide to mention it when they're arrested. That New Mexico case is the perfect example. If you succeed in saying a game is to blame for a murder, you are giving murderers an excuse to avoid punishment.

So, after listening to this tripe on Foxnews, I hit google to see where the MK thing fits in. I can't find a single story that actually mentions where MK comes into the equation outside of them "imitating moves seen in Mortal Kombat". Last I checked, no one I was aware of in mortal kombat broke an egg and poured the contents down the throat of an unconcious victim....or submerged them in water. This is either a piss poor attempt by some kids to cover their tracks by blaming video games, or a piss poor attempt to explain a crime away by lazy cops by blaming video games. The latter seems to have become the new vogue for those in the law enforcement business.
The only connection to video games I found was in an article from the Denver post saying that the boyfriend had originally testified that he was downstairs playing video games while the sisters were upstairs wrestling. Now, wrestling to me sounds like some WWE fans. Not sure, just sort of my feeling. Mayhaps we should start asking if they did any figure-4's or an armbar. Actually, blood in the spine and damage to the skull would be indicative of body slams and throws that are normally found in wrestling. Furthermore, the moment the boyfriend said that his hands were registered as leathal weapons, we should have realized he wasn't the brightest bulb in the box. Another note, there were reports in either the wired.com article or the denver post article (Read a few too many now) that this wasn't the first time the little girl had been found with bruises. Prior babysitters had found bruises on her, and her response was that she had "fallen down some stairs"...can we say consistent with child abuse? History of abuse? Sociopathic tendencies?
Pureblooded idiocy killed that little girl, ignorance is giving them a social excuse, and I hope to god someone in colorado can see through this line of BS.

I was going to say something, but everything I wanted to say has already been said. :)

Ghost Coins...

Yeah, you explained it better than I did...

@Mister Angry

Thank you. I am trying to restrain myself. I, too, share annonymous' feelings on the matter, but, as you put it, what is done is done.
What I would like to know is what happened over the reports to child protective services (the family was apparently reported before over the 7 year old being injured). So, there is more to this particular event than just the tragedy itself.
There appears to be a building up to it. An absentee single mom (doing what she could I imagine) who in good faith left her eldest daughter the responsibility of watching over her little sister...then all hell broke loose. That much is null at this point, devoid of anymore contextual analysis benefit. We need to see what happened a priori. There we will find the monsters and boogymen that led up to this sad moment. Then, and only then can we really tally up the damage and make an assessment on the best way to go about fixing it.

@Joe (who's comment was apparently removed)

Please do not bring race into this. The wired forum is swamped with it, and it presents no real weight to the arguement at hand. It could have easily been anyone of any race, creed, religion, etc. To assume that this is based on the color of one's skin is both immature and grossly out of line.

I think this is is my first time replying to GP, normally because what gets posted is a mere matter of a sigh, a snigger or a shaking of the head.

This actually makes me angry. A seven year old killed by people that have no *excuse* for it possibly being accidental, not only that but her own sister.

It's a little harsh, but I hope she dies a horrible, painful death.
And to think she can blame it on a game that hasn't been in the limelight for what, 10 years or more?

Next on Shifting Blame: "Custer's Revenge made me think rape was a great idea!" -Stay Tuned!

@ Loudspeaker

a) most likely the alcohol was already present in the house. An adult does live there, so there is a strong possibility that alcohol was readily available. Not exactly a crime to have beer in your fridge. I am also fairly certain that the mother did not encourage her daughter to drink or to share the mother's alcohol with anyone underage. If she did, she is now in the running with Brittney Spears' mom for matron of the year.
Now, if the boyfriend brought something over, then you can hunt down who sold it to him and pop them with selling to a minor, no more no less. Trying to ding the alcohol vendor would be very, very difficult.

b) when does a parent need to 'authorize' a daughter to watch a younger daughter? When I was growing up it was more of an accepted thing.

" son, you're going to watch your little brother while we go to the store."
" yes dad."

End of scenario. There might be some bitching and moaning, but my parents came home to to kids vice one every time. Most likely the mother did not 'authorize' a visit by the boyfriend. Sadly, no legal binding on either issue. Now, if there is negligence, bad parenting, etc. You can possibly ding her with that in a court of law, but trying to get this event to stick to the one who 'authorized' them to babysit is going to be harder then dinging the bloke that might have sold alcohol to the boyfriend.

However, the scenario you presented does sound like the most rational posited by any talking head on the news stations across the globe. Tragically, we're not getting paid as much as they are to ignore logic and reasoning. I do wonder how much those tools get paid to ham this stuff up?

damn this suck dumb as s kids. drunken fatality for the lose

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_7760927

"One neighbor said she suspected Zoe was being abused and said she reported it to authorities before she died.

Rhonda Simonetti said she baby-sat Zoe and her twin sisters twice, for four days each time, when she noticed bruises on Zoe.

"The first time I asked her, she said she fell down the stairs," Simonetti said. "The second time, she started crying and said Lamar had been hitting her."

Simonetti said she took a day off to report the abuse but never heard back. "

So there's a history of violence with nothing done about it until the child's death, and then it's the fault of video games?

@ WarOtter: "(Yes I’m a callous prick)"

Perhaps, years from now, you'll remember what you wrote here and regret it. I hope so.

@ Dave
in colorado i dont think we use anything for painful deaths i think we just use lethal enjection

Mortal Kombat is like so 1990's.

@Loudspeaker

MK alcohol...I just had the image of the tequilla with a scorpion in it pass through my mind. One question, how would they fit him in the bottle? And would sub-zero's ever be anything but chilled?

At least they didn't blame it on Chuck Noris... cuz that would have really got him pissed.

I hope they sentence the baby sitters to death... via face kick.

Where in mortal kombat does it give you the option to tag team against a single opponent?

@Justanotherlass

Excellent point. I'll wait here, sharpening the pitchforks.


On a related note, in the future should someone ever admit to killing a human being because a videogame inspired him to do it (and not a ridiculous fifteen year old game at that), do we believe him or instantly deny he ever said it and go snap at anyone who dares think otherwise?

Why isn't the bible more relevant in people's lives today? Why would these drunk teenagers re-enact mortal kombat when they could re-enact the fall of Jericho! Come on kids! The Bible has a way bigger body count, plus it's sanctioned by your local authorities!

@ Anywho

It made it all the way down to my corner of the world, our rag (the herald) had a short article about it in its world rap-up section.

Funnily they didn't mention alcohol, just MK, biased fuckers.

Utterly Unexcusable! Since when did Scorpion had a "pinch the thigh" move or Liu Kang poking anyone's chest? Now if the story said the suspects did a HIMBABALE!!!-ish move by Raiden, then I would maybe believe they immitated Mortal Kombat. Maybe.

I'm with the people who pointed out the word "drunk." How can anyone overlook THAT.

This is madness.

@ White-haired Journalist

In accordance with the ancient rules of the intertubes:

MADNESS??? THIS IS SPARTA!!!!!!!11one

As an actual answer though; video games are evil and corrupting, whereas if they reported eveycase of alcohol fueled murder they'd look like a phone directory/have no bandwith left for other scaremongering (whichever is more appropriate).

[...] (Sources: GamePolitics, Rocky Mountain News) [...]

the latest MK game was MK Armageddon for the PS2 and it later game out for the Wii but that game out last year I think.... still this is a sad story no matter if it was because of a game or not

Ed Boon's gotta be pissed.

But getting to the real meat of the story, this case has strong echoes of the Lionel Tate case

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Tate

It's even worse that underaged drinking is supposedly involved along with an alleged history of abuse. What a meaningless waste of a young life. I'm fucking physically ill. Wait 15 minutes AFTER SHE STOPS BREATHING? Put her in A FUCKING BATH AND CRACK A RAW EGG IN HER MOUTH TO SEE IF SHE'S FUCKING ALIVE? This is too fucking sad. Fuckin' abominable.

Not to try and insult an entire state, but has anyone thought that the problem may actually lie within Colorado. How many killings have their been in Colorado that have been blamed on video games??

So didn't anyone else notice that the dead girl was KIDNAPPED by her mother and that there is an arrest warrant for the 30 year old mother for this kidnapping???
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7774010

mother 30 oldest daughter 16.

teens drunk.

pattern of abuse.

mother gone for days at a time.

and yet games are responsible for this horrible crime????

this poor poor 7 year old girl, I feel terrible about the horrible things she went through!!!

@ Ed Orman
>>Perhaps, years from now, you’ll remember what you wrote here and regret it. I hope so.

Doubt it, I barely remember this morning let alone what I wrote on a message board years ago.

Besides, if the 7 year old had been any good at MK, she totally should have been able to counter or at least block.

looks like my math got cut off in point 3. We'll try again.

Video game MUCH LESS THAN stupidity ROUGHLY EQUAL TO alcohol.

I needn't say more.

Ahhh. he's THAT one... Well, it was a 50% option.

Ah well, can't be right all the time ;)

@ WarOtter: "Doubt it, I barely remember blah blah blah"

Ah, I see. A troll. Bye, then.

For once the judge looked at the other mitigating factors and excluded the least....

Hmm...16 and 17 and they were drunk
Cough rape cough "slapped her stomach and buttocks and poked at the victim’s chest.” (when they say chest when talking about a female it means boobs,incase your stupid and didnt know that already)

their obviously homicidal bindge drinking teens who are stupid enough to employ the whole gta made me do it dealioso

lock um up for life and schedule dialy beatings from martial arts grand masters
oh no their minors ...if they think their old enough to drink then their old enough to rot in a cell

isnt it sad what this world is comming to?

Its time to try a new method with crime I call it...Tough Hate

@wizbang

I've played multiple games where you use a sword in combat, but I'm still no good at using a sword. You fail.

Also, Mortal Kombat isn't a device as a device can work on it's own, Mortal Kombat, in either CD or in older cases cartridge form require you to to put it into a game console in order for the game to work. It won't just project images to you via a hologram or electronic telepathy, and I've examined the interior of both consoles and cartridges, they contains no crystals or radio transmitters or anything that could even be considered a method of mind control.

And again,it's a FANTASY fighting game where characters can teleport, throw fire, transform, and make arcade machines fall fomr the sky.

Double fail, you lose, thanks for playing.

Damn the media. They do anything they can to sensationalize a story, even blame video games on the actions of two teenagers who are more than old enough to know not to kick a little girl around--just because the almighty dollar and the almighty agenda are more important than the facts.