Elyria, Ohio (The Weekly Vice) -- Daniel Petric, a 16-year-old Ohio teen was so outraged that his father took away his Halo 3 video game, he used a 9mm handgun to murder his mother and then shoot his father. He then tried to arrange the scene to make it look like a murder-suicide attempt, say prosecutors.
Daniel Petric, who turned 17 during his incarceration, is now standing trial in Ohio for the murder of his mother Susan Petric and the attempted murder of his father, Mark Petric.
In the opening days of the trial, attorneys gave opening statements before the teen's father Mark testified about the night of the shooting.
According to prosecutors and testimony, Daniel Petric was forbidden to purchase Halo 3 by his parents. Despite their wishes, he allegedly snuck out to purchase the game anyway, but was caught when he returned to the house. Daniel's father locked the game up in a lockbox which was also used to store a 9mm handgun.
Investigators say Daniel later snuck into the lockbox and removed the video game and handgun. Then, on the evening of October 20, 2007, Daniel approached his parents in the living room with a request.
"Would you guys close your eyes," Daniel asked. "I have a surprise for you."
Mark Petric testified that he expected a "pleasant surprise." Instead, he felt his head go numb as his son shot he and his wife in the head - killing his mother instantly.
Mark Petric testified that the next thing he remembered was his son shoving the gun in his hand and saying "Hey Dad, here's your gun. Take it."
Prosecutors say Daniel Petric was busy setting the scene up to appear as a murder-suicide when Mark and Susan's 21-year-old daughter, Heidi, arrived with her husband to watch a Cleveland Indians game. When they knocked at the door, Daniel Petric refused to let them in, stating that his parents had just had a big fight.
Knowing something was wrong, the couple forced their way into the home, where they found the two victims. Daniel fled the scene in the family's van, but was caught by police a few minutes later.
Lawyers for Daniel Petric told the court that the teen had been under a large amount of stress due to a snowboarding accident that had left the teen housebound for about a year.
Mark Petric testified that he was allowed to visit his son in jail and that his son apologized to him saying "Dad, I'm so sorry for what I did to Mom, to you and to the family."
Mark went onto state that his son told him he could hardly live with the guilt over what he had done.
Mark responded in court by telling Daniel, "You're my son. You're my boy."
The Weekly Vice Opinion:
While this tragedy occurred over a year ago, the motive behind the murder was kept confidential. Now we know why.
To think that a human being would murder their own parents over a video game is just beyond comprehension. How does one wrap their brain around that?
This wasn't a case of two parents and a teen who had a rocky relationship. The testimony so far has pretty much established that Daniel had a fairly close relationship with his mom.
The Petric's have two daughters, thus four lives completely torn apart forever over a video game. How do you even begin to comprehend that?
Danny Vice
The Weekly Vice
http://www.theweeklyvice.com
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6 comments:
Sorry, this kid is just not fit for society. He should be in prison until he has dentures and walks with a cane.
Something has to be mentally unstable about him.
He had a beautiful mother and it sounds like his parents tried to do the right thing by monitoring what kind of games he was playing.
I want to extend my sincerest condolences to this family, especially the sister who came home to such a scene. I can't even imagine how horrifying that must of been.
They need to give him a case of K-Y jelly , the most slippery soap ever and kiss him off!
I feel nothing but the greatest of sorrow for everyone involved in this, but I wish American society would stop chalking these occasional tragedies up as being the fault of "video games". Putting the defamation of a harmless industry aside, it shifts crucial focus away from the much more dangerous and unfortunate root problems of serious mental illness and/or failed childrearing practices that actually form the foundation of awful events like this.
You cannot take steps toward preventing tragedy until you acknowledge the cause.
Tobu-get real.I suspect you might have some sort of financial interest in the games business.While its true that people who do these things would have some sort of emotional problems or lack of morals to begin with at the same time playing video games for hours where your pretend killing people and silly fantasies DOES desensitise some of the people to violence.Also having video games where theres pretend woman seen like sex objects or doing suggestive things does get it into those peoples minds that hat is "normal" that that is what women are.Whether you realise it or not people do get influence by what they watch,who they hang out wih,who the media puts on pedestals eg:paris hilton.
So be honest with yourself that it is a combination of a persons underlying state plus then desensitising,influencial video games added on top of that.It is neither purely one or the other.
I personally would like to know how many of these kids are on ADHD meds.? Just a guess but I bet the majority are.
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