Teen Convicted In Halo 3 Related Killing
It’s sad enough to see people so caught up in the world of video games that they eschew friends, family and normal social situations, but when violence gets involved it’s much, much worse. Recently Daniel Petric, a teen from Ohio, shot his parents after they confiscated his copy of Halo 3 (which they’d forbidden him to buy). His father survived the shooting, which Petric had attempted to make look like a murder-suicide by putting the gun into his father’s hand after he had shot both of them.
As one might expect, the lawyers attempted to blame the crime on Petric’s video game addiction, which had something to do with why his parents instructed him not to buy Halo 3. They were going for the insanity defense, but the murder-suicide plot and the fact that Petric admitted to thinking about killing his parents in the weeks before the crime generally eroded his claim of insanity and he was convicted.
Daniel Petric now faces sentencing with life in prison without parole as the maximum sentence. While this is a terrible tragedy and I send my sympathies to Mr. Petric and his family, it’s good to see that the spirit of accountability is still alive in a country that’s all together too quick to blame others.