Thailand pulls Grand Theft Auto from shops after murder

New Era Interactive Media, the distributor of the Grand Theft Auto games in Thailand, has opted to pull GTA from store shelves after a teenager confessed to robbing and killing a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from the game series. Learn more after the jump.

Some disturbing video game-related news comes to us today from Thailand. New Era Interactive Media, the distributor of the Grand Theft Auto games in Thailand, has opted to pull GTA from store shelves after a teenager confessed to robbing and killing a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from the game series.

Said New Era Interactive Media sales and marketing director Sakchai Chotikachinda,

We are sending out requests today to outlets and shops to pull the games off their shelves and we will replace them with other games. We are also urging video game arcades to pull the games from service.

We’ll take this next bit straight from the Reuters report, seeing as it really caught our attention:

“He said he wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game,” chief police investigator Veeravit Pipattanasak told Reuters.

Newspapers are reporting that the teen wasn’t planning to stab the driver, but did so when the taxi driver tried to retaliate. He was arrested on late Saturday when he was found trying to drive the car backwards out of a Bangkok street. The wounded driver was in the back seat.

According to the report, the police said the youth showed no sign of mental problems during questioning and confessed to committing the crime because of the game. The youth in question faces possible death by lethal injection should he be found guilty of the crime.

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Via Reuters