Elyria, Ohio – Daniel Petric, 17, was convicted on Monday of aggravated murder, and attempted aggravated murder along with other charges.  The state prosecutors said that Daniel planned to kill his parents over a disagreement about the video game “Halo 3”. Daniel’s defense attorney said that because he of his age and his addiction to the game he should not be held as responsible for the crime.
The Judge James Burge who hears common pleas denied the request and sighted the evidence that Daniel plotted the murder for weeks. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison with no parole.  No sentencing date has been made. Daniel planned to kill his parents because his father would not allow him to play “Halo 3”. Daniel had become obsessed with the game, playing for up to 18 hours a day, some days.Â
Daniel got his fathers 9mm from the lock safe it was stored in. That to me is a gross negligence on the parents part. I am not saying they deserved to be attacked. A key to a firearm safe should never be easily accessible, even to a teenager. It is a horrific mistake that he was able to get the key and gain access to the firearm. My children never have and never will have access to any key that unlocks my firearm safe. That to me is absurd. Daniel then went into the room where his parents were and asked them to close there eyes, that he had a surprise for them. Mark and Susan Petric did as there son asked them to do. Mark then thinking he was going to get a pleasant surprise, went numb in the head from a gunshot wound. His wife Susan, Daniel’s mother didn’t survive the attack. She died from a gunshot wound to the head. Luckily his father survived in case he chooses to testify against the teen.
Prosecutors say that Daniel is a cold, calculating killer guilty of pre-meditating his parents murder. Daniel fled the scene carrying his “Halo 3” game. Wow I am amazed at this. I had no clue video games were that powerful in a young persons mind. I am amazed at this occurrence What is going through the minds of our teens today? Parents need to be fully aware of signals outwardly expressed by there children/teens. Any sign of negativity or volatility needs to be addressed immediately. Intervention is well needed in these types of situations. Tragedy’s like this need to be prevented before they are a re-occurring reality.
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackSome PK’s or Pastors Kids have a rough time because the parents/pastors put enormous pressure on their kids to be the perfect little Christian. I knew a few of them when I was involved with an Assemblies of God church and they seemed to be very bitter, angry and got in a lot of trouble. The AG Churches are the backbone of the Christian Conservatives. This is where the extreme form of Christianity comes from. That and perhaps a gene with the propensity for this kind of violence maybe triggered this? Or I could be completely wrong.
I also knew a guy who rolled his eyes when he mentioned being raised in the Assemblies of God. Anguish and frustration is how he characterized it.
I see a struggle over Mom. Dad doesn’t want Mom to raise a sissy, Mom prefers to dote on her son rather than have a physical relationship with Dad, Dad thinks he should exert his Biblical status as head of the household and holder of the correcting rod, and they displace it onto a struggle over a video game. “I’ll show you who’s boss.”
It could also be brain injury or a reaction to the staph infection or the medication used to treat it. An aggressive defense should have made use of this, and if they didn’t, it may be irrelevant.
One of the Clutter (In Cold Blood) murderers, Richard Hickok, received head injuries in a car wreck that led to remarked behavioral changes in the years before he plotted with Perry Smith to rob and murder the family.
Head injuries both cause and can mimic clinical depression–but giving a person the current cocktail of “antidepressants” can lead to the exact same behavior that was so murderous here.
The television cartoon character Peggy Hill in “King Of The Hill” was in a full-body cast after her skydiving parachute failed to open, in a cliff-hanger final episode a few years ago.
Peggy “got humble” when she realized she was completely dependent on others for something as minor as a back-scratch.
Dad might have lowered over flat-on-his-back Daniel and seen this as his chance to break the kid’s will, Dad’s chance to say You’ll Move When I Tell You To Move.
Fundamentalist Christians are all about breaking the will.
This makes me sick to my stomach. I am a 23 year old girl that plays Halo & yes, it can be addicting. But I had a LOVING & CARING parent that made me get out of the house. I was never allowed to sit inside hours upon end with a video game or anything else for that matter. She made me do things everyday & I couldn’t sleep late either. I had to get up early on the weekends. Parents let the TV & video games babysit! ..This could have been prevented! Argh..
Yeah right, christianism is to be blamed for every misdeed and atrocity in this country you God-haters. Is it hard to see that what we face here is a lunatic-psycho parent killer that deserves only death without any trial rather than tax-funded life imprisonment?
But every occasion is good to smack Jesus Christ… as good as play Halo 3 eighteen hours a day and kill own mother.
If I played Halo 3 for 18 hours a day I would at least be going to some tournaments to make me rich 😉
HAHA! You are not even lying..
Dan@2:53 pm – Pretty much the way the “anything goes” society rationalizes, i.e. Christianity perverts normal thinking; inhibits natural flow of aggression; prevents self-expression, etc. Blame everything on the Christian belief but too closed-minded to realize that it is Christianity that set the very standards by which murder is wrong, i.e. thou shalt not kill. Mental giants who are going to solve the world’s problems, eliminate violence and all the other world problems.
And I am by no means suggesting that there are not “cults” practicing in the name of religion that are only a camouflage for evil and perversion, such as the recent raid of the sect that promotes child marriages to these so-called “church leaders,” (sex slaves). Equally sick are the “churches” wherein homosexual “priests” molest boys.
Unfortunately, these “cults” categorize themselves as “churches,” thus further giving Christianity a bad rap.
Scary. Our 20 year old is addicted to Halo….and his life has spiraled for the past two years. He does not live with us, does not have access to our guns and this really opens my eyes even more to what this video game addicitons can do to our kids. Thanks for the eye opener on this article!
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