A 9-year-old Brooklyn boy died this week after jumping from the roof of his apartment building with a makeshift parachute.
The New York Daily News quotes a playmate as saying that the fatal plunge taken by Damori Miles was inspired by THQ's WWE Smackdown vs. RAW. However, a WWE official denied that parachutes are used in the T-rated game:
Shakar, Damori's best friend, said his pal was imitating his favorite PlayStation2 game, "WWE SmackDown vs Raw."
"He tried to do a swan dive like Jeff Harding does in 'SmackDown.' That was his favorite game. He played it all the time," Shakar said...
A a spokesman for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), said the video was designed for ages 13 and up and none of the characters use parachutes or jump off buildings.
"The death of Damori Miles is a tragedy and our condolences go out to his family," he said. "We should allow the authorities to conduct a full investigation... including insecure roof access, before conclusions are made about this unfortunate incident.
Comments
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown ...
+1
Trevor Gray ganjookie@yahoo.com
Trevor Gray
ganjookie@yahoo.com
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown vs.
Things to note:
1. The kid was in special education, he was possibly mentally disabled, to what degree we don't know.
2. What he imitated wasn't specifically in the game, but who knows what he was thinking?
3. He lived on the 10th floor and went up to the roof. Holy crap.
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown vs.
Furthermore, the alarm that was supposed to go off once the roof door was opened did not sound. it was not locked, and he was able to gain easy access to an area that had no guard rails or security features to prevent this kind of thing. Someone, even if it's not the parents, is in trouble here.
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown vs.
""He tried to do a swan dive like Jeff Harding does in 'SmackDown.' That was his favorite game. He played it all the time," Shakar said..."
Was Mike Adamle writing this article?
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown vs.
It's actually Jeff hardy, brother of wrestler matt hardy.
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown vs.
...I know that, I mentioned Adamle cause he called Jeff Hardy, Jeff Harvey at the Royal Rumble.
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown ...
Facepalms all around on this one...parents, kid, that "playmate" who said he was imitating something from the game that isn't in the game at all...
I find that statement highly suspect to begin with (that another ~9-year-old said he was imitating the game).
Condolences to the family. I hope that whatever the real cause of this accident was, it's uncovered and acknowledged.
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown ...
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown vs.
ANd the parents were where?
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown vs.
According to the article, the kid was left in the care of an older sister while mom went to the store.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Nightwng2000 has also updated his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown vs.
Bad move on the part of the parent. Never leave a child to be watched by another child.
******* http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1907543
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown vs.
It doesn't say how old the older sister is, though, for some strange reason, they kept prattling off the ages of other people in the article, from family friend to family friend's kids.
I can tell you that here in Wilmington, NC, Social Services indicated, when I had asked them some time back, that the legal age to leave a child alone here is based on rules set by the Fire Dept. And that the minimum age is 8 years old. BUT, the lady with Social Services also said that one must also take into account the mental capacity of the child. The responsibility they show to being left alone. I would assume that the child being left in charge must be the age to go by in this type of case. Investigators need to be looking, in addition to the issue of the unlocked door, what it was the older sibling was doing.
Unfortunately, many Parents, good Parents, make hasty choices that seem reasonable and simple at the moment which turn into disasters one time out of the hundreds of other successfult times that they may have done in the past.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Nightwng2000 has also updated his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown vs.
There is nothing wrong with leaving a child under the care of an older sibling. If the older sibling is mature enough to handle it, there should be no problem. Most kids get started babysitting at the age of 12 or 13.
it does not say how old the sister was, but there is a good chance she was a young teen. She also seemed reasonably responsible as she was looking for her brother when she noticed he was missing.
E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown ...
How pathetic is it that they are blaming a wrestling game for a kid jumping off of a roof with a homemade parachute? There are no parachutes in the game, no roof jumping. Where is the connection?
Not to sound cold, but come on.. Its not the game's fault. I certainly knew when I was 9 that jumping off of a roof is a bad Idea, and I also knew that a peice of plastic doesn't work as a parachute, no matter how cool that would have been. No matter how young kids like these are, you have to realize that they do think, they do have brains, and they make decisions for themselves. This kid was just stupid.
I mean, I've had my share of bad ideas, but this is the equivalent of a 9 year old sticking a fork into an electrical outlet, or jumping out of a moving vehicle. We all knew at that age that those were bad ideas. Whether its the parents fault for not teaching the kid these life lessons, or the kid's fault for being just plain dumb, who knows? All I know, is it wasn't the games fault..
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown ...
"and I also knew that a peice of plastic doesn't work as a parachute"
Unfortunatley I wasn't, I remember trying to fly using a pastic shopping bag but I remember that I knew parachutes worked because they caught the wind and while my bag was smaller it was a REALLY windy day so I figured it should even out.
Of course I didn't get far past the first step and quickly learnt it wasn't quite windy enough for a sail that small.
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown ...
I used a plastic bag as a parachute but only for jumping off my bed. Since that didn't work I stopped at that.
- Stand back! I have an opinion, and I'm not afraid to use it.
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown ...
Which WWE game did YOU play?
Re: Report: 9-Year Old Dies in Fatal Imitation of Smackdown ...
Well, it says Smackdown! vs. Raw, and none of the Smackdown! vs. Raw's have had roof jumping. They removed backstage areas from the games when the series became Smackdown! vs. Raw, so the highest place you could jump from, for the most part was the turnbuckles until they put in that small scaffold area, but that only lasted two games and wasn't close to "roof height".