8-Year-Old Shoots and Kills His 90-Year-Old Grandma After Playing Video Game
What happened in Slaughter, Louisiana?
An eight-year-old boy shot 90-year-old Marie Smothers in the back of her head while she was watching television in her Slaughter, Louisiana mobile home at Country Breeze Mobile Home Park on LA 67, in August 2013. He had been playing the video game Grand Theft Auto IV on the PlayStation III just minutes before. In that game, the player accrues points by killing others.
The elderly woman was his grandmother — and his caregiver. She was dead at the scene.
What did the sheriff's office say?
"Although a motive for the shooting is unknown at this time, investigators have learned that the juvenile suspect was playing a video game on the PlayStation III Grand Theft Auto IV, a realistic game that has been associated with encouraging violence and awards points to players for killing people, just minutes before the homicide occurred," the East Feliciana Parish sheriff's office said in a statement.
Was the boy charged?
No. The boy was released to his parents, and under Louisiana law, "those who have not reached the age of 10 years are exempt from criminal responsibility."
But there was a critical correction to the initial reports: the district attorney later said the shooting was an accident — the boy picked up a .38-caliber handgun and thought it was a toy gun. "He doesn't know that if you point a gun at somebody, it kills them and they're gone forever," said District Attorney Samuel D'Aquilla.
Was the video game really to blame?
The game's maker, Take-Two Interactive, was quick to reject the link between video games and violence, saying: "Ascribing a connection to entertainment — a theory that has been disproven repeatedly by multiple independent studies — both minimizes this moment and sidesteps the real issues at hand."
The real question few asked: why did an 8-year-old have access to a loaded gun to "play" with? Every news outlet covering the story blamed the video game; hardly any wondered why a loaded firearm was available as a plaything for a child.
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