Schizophrenic guy kills, says GTA told him to do it
Y’know, law books in the future will soon come to include the classic “GTA defense.” Look at the sheer glut of criminal acts that perpetrators attribute to titles in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series. It’s practically become the next gen version of the insanity plea.
Over in London, a teenager loaded with “skunk weed”, a high-strength kind of cannabis, murdered a 51-year old woman. Why? According to a report from ThisIsLondon.co.uk, Ezekiel Maxwell, a paranoid schizophrenic, committed the crime because “gangster voices” from a Grand Theft Auto game told him to do so.
Maxwell apparently believed that he was Carl Johnson, the main character in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The crime happened on September 5 last year, but we’re guessing that the reason this has come to light now is due in part to the recent rash of “skunk”-related crime pieces in London papers. Of course, the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV may also be part of it, but that’s kind of far-fetched.
We should also note that Maxwell had been smoking cannabis and “skunk” as well as taking cocaine since he was 14. He had also been diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Unless there’s something wrong with your head in the first place, playing a violent videogame won’t turn you into some kind of homicidal maniac.
Via This Is London
Y’know, law books in the future will soon come to include the classic “GTA defense.” Look at the sheer glut of criminal acts that perpetrators attribute to titles in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series. It’s practically become the next gen version of the insanity plea.
Over in London, a teenager loaded with “skunk weed”, a high-strength kind of cannabis, murdered a 51-year old woman. Why? According to a report from ThisIsLondon.co.uk, Ezekiel Maxwell, a paranoid schizophrenic, committed the crime because “gangster voices” from a Grand Theft Auto game told him to do so.
Maxwell apparently believed that he was Carl Johnson, the main character in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The crime happened on September 5 last year, but we’re guessing that the reason this has come to light now is due in part to the recent rash of “skunk”-related crime pieces in London papers. Of course, the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV may also be part of it, but that’s kind of far-fetched.
We should also note that Maxwell had been smoking cannabis and “skunk” as well as taking cocaine since he was 14. He had also been diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Unless there’s something wrong with your head in the first place, playing a violent videogame won’t turn you into some kind of homicidal maniac.
Via This Is London