Video game violence? Man shoots son over console dispute

Perhaps this story is more telling of domestic violence rather than violence caused by video games. A 17-year-old and his 60-year-old father were having a dispute over the boy’s console. It ended strangely and violently when the boy asked his father to shoot him. And his father did. Read the whole story in the full article.

It’s another case of violence related to video games – although this story may be more telling of the state of domestic affairs. In Pennsylvania“>Pennsylvania, a man shot his son, effectively ending a dispute that started with an Xbox 360.

The argument started when a 17-year-old asked his father to take a look at his Xbox 360 console. His father, 60-year-old James Stanley Niedosik didn’t want to and the argument started from there.

Somehow it escalated to the point where the son handed his father a .22 rifle, telling him to shoot him. Apparently the argument was heated enough for the father to comply, or at least to press the trigger accidentally.

No exact details have been revealed as to how it escalated or whether it was an accident or not. What’s sure is, the boy has a .22 caliber bullet lodged in his skull and is currently heavily sedated in Lehigh Valley Hospital.

The father is currently in Monroe County Prison with a US$ 250,000 bail, charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, simple assault, and endangering the welfare of a child.

The son’s mother believes the shooting was an accident as she wasn’t there when the shooting happened and hasn’t talked to her son yet:

One’s in jail, one’s in the hospital. I won’t know exactly what happened until I talk to [my son]. He’s incoherent yet; they have him heavily sedated.

Although the story involved a video game console, crediting it as the driving force of the violence may be unlikely as it seems it played no further role in the dispute other than as an arbitrary source of conflict, but perhaps future details will prove otherwise.

Via The Morning Call