Son kills parents for taking away Halo 3

From the Cleveland Metro...

Posted by Michael Sangiacomo December 15, 2008 10:47AM

ELYRIA ? Daniel Petric was so angry that his father would not allow him to play the violent video game Halo 3 that he killed his mother and shot his father, then tried to make it appear to be a murder-suicide, prosecutors told a Lorain County jury this morning in the boy's murder trial.

Petric, now 17, had sneaked out of his house to buy the game. But his parents caught him as he came in with the game and took it from him. His father, Mark, put the game in a lockbox in the parents' closet. He also kept a 9 mm handgun in the box, according to prosecutors.

Daniel Petric took the gun and the game out of the box, they said.

Mark Petric, who is a minister at New Life Assembly of God in Wellington, testified that before the shooting on Oct. 20, 2007, his then-16-year-old son came into the room with a question:

"Would you guys close your eyes," Daniel Petric asked. "I have a surprise for you."

Mark Petric said he expected a pleasant surprise. The next thing he knew, his head went numb. He had been shot in the head.

Susan Petric, 43, died of gunshot wound to the head.

He said the next thing he remembers is his son shoving the gun in his hand and saying, "Hey Dad, here's your gun. Take it."

Mark Petric broke down on the witness stand as he explained how he survived the shooting. His daughter and her husband came to the house to watch an Indians game. He heard his son telling them they couldn't come in.

"You can't come in," Mark Petric recalled his son saying. "You guys shouldn't come in. Mom and Dad had a big argument."

Mark Petric said all he could do was make a guttural yell for help.

Mark Petric was allowed to visit his son in jail over the past year. He said his son has apologized.

"Dad, I'm so sorry for what I did to Mom, to you and to the family," Daniel Petric said, according to his father. "I'm so glad you are alive."

"You're my son," Mark Petric responded. "You're my boy."

Mark Petric said his son told him he could hardly live with the guilt over what he did.

"He would cry, and I would cry," Mark Petric told the jury.

He said Susan Petric and their son had a very close relationship.

"He was always her little boy," Mark Petric told the jury.

Daniel Petric's lawyers also gave a short opening statement to jurors. They said their client had been under great stress because of a snowboarding accident that resulted in a severe staph infection.

He was homebound for a year with nothing to do but watch television and play video games.

The case is being tried to a Lorain County Common Pleas judge instead of a jury at the request of Daniel Petric.

Holy shit, that's extraordinary

some guy survived a headshot?!

Quote:
Jules: This was Divine Intervention! You know what "divine intervention" is?
Vincent: Yeah, I think so. That means God came down from Heaven and stopped the bullets.
Jules: Yeah, man, that's what it means. That's exactly what it means! God came down from Heaven and stopped the bullets.
Vincent: I think we should be going now.
Jules: Don't do that! Don't you ****ing do that! Don't blow this shit off! What just happened was a ****ing miracle!

:P

that will teach him....

clearly he needed auto-aim assist rubbish from the console.. maybe that's an argument FOR computer games?? console games teach you to be a shit shot =)

if i ever had a son (which i wont cause im an asshole)

i'd disown him forever and let him rot if he did that to me

yes im an asshole

Anyone who shoots to kill is mentally unstable in one form or another, or has a false sense of patriotism, perhaps due to government propaganda (thus, mentally unstable). Conscription would have created a different set of dynamics...

Anyway, I'm rambling. My point is that clearly he had issues if he pulled a gun on his parents. As much as you'd like to leave him to rot, it wouldn't be the correct or truly moral path to take, even if he took your wife's life. I don't expect 99% of people who be able to take the higher road and initiate the rehabilitation of your son's life and yours, I don't know if I could bring myself to ever look at him again, but it would indeed be the higher road.

I feel a sense of awe and inspiration in this father and his response to the entire tragic situation. In another sense it's just another tragic story that represents the slope it sometimes feels we're all sliding down... but that's really just doom-and-gloom irrational thought. There have been and will always be crazy people. Now we just get to hear about every incident thanks to global news networks and the internet.

Quote from rec;359273:
Anyone who shoots to kill is mentally unstable in one form or another, or has a false sense of patriotism, perhaps due to government propaganda (thus, mentally unstable). Conscription would have created a different set of dynamics...

Surely you are not saying that to want to kill or the desire to kill in every situation that it may arise is soley because of mental instability.

Quote:
Mark Petric, who is a minister at New Life Assembly of God in Wellington I would say mental instability runs in the family.

Quote from rec;359273:
Anyone who shoots to kill is mentally unstable in one form or another, or has a false sense of patriotism, perhaps due to government propaganda (thus, mentally unstable). Conscription would have created a different set of dynamics...

Considering he had to sneak out to purchase the game tells me that their parents probably have a history of imposing probably harsh restrictions on their son. This would of created some unresolved hate. These feelings would of probably have lead him to break into the lockbox to get the game. Finding the gun + the current state of mind = perfect opportunity to revenge his parents.

To say that this was a result of metal instability is rather a weak argument to me. I'd say this was more of a crime of passion.

Considering he apologized to his father about it later shows some sense of remorse. If he were mentally unstable I don't think he would of apologized.

Then again, maybe he's a two-faced criminal mastermind with a nasty sense of morality and a knack for lying. Then we've just missed out the making of the next Bond villain.

Quote from rec;359273:
I don't expect 99% of people who be able to take the higher road and initiate the rehabilitation of your son's life and yours, I don't know if I could bring myself to ever look at him again, but it would indeed be the higher road.
I think you're absolutely right. And I don't believe that dad is part of that 1% that would take the 'higher road'. I think his motivations would more likely stem from guilt rather than anything else.

I'm also unemployed and have an enormous amount of down time and is rather bored :)

Time exposed to Halo 3 before murder: Apparently zero.
Time exposed to christian fundie parents and endless bible classes before murder: Entire life.

It's clearly Halo 3's fault!

Quote from space_midgit;359292:
Surely you are not saying that to want to kill or the desire to kill in every situation that it may arise is soley because of mental instability.

I'm no shrink, but yes, that's what I'm saying. If you have a desire to kill, then either at that moment or in general, you would be unstable. :P

I'm happy to argue the point though; feel free to give me an example to consider.

first, define unstable.

Wanting to actually kill someone. :P

how about not wanting to but being forced by circumstance?

Well then you wouldn't have wanted to kill someone.

depends on the circumstance. it may present an immediate need, desire or want to kill someone, while not having an overall desire to do so.

besides, your initial statement didn't mention want or desire - just that shooting to kill = unstable.

Ah sorry sort of neglected your post, DVD...

Quote from DVD;359304:
Finding the gun + the current state of mind = perfect opportunity to revenge his parents.

To say that this was a result of metal instability is rather a weak argument to me. I'd say this was more of a crime of passion.

But you just said "+ current stat of mind"... that current state of mind would have been one of instability. The moment you decide you want to kill another human being is the moment you're unstable - that's the moment it becomes abundantly clear you do in fact have major f*cking issues. :P

Quote from DVD;359304:
Considering he apologized to his father about it later shows some sense of remorse. If he were mentally unstable I don't think he would of apologized.

Even unstable types have remorse. They're unstable after all, that's the point. A depressed person isn't doom and gloom 24/7 either - there is light and shade with most mental illness. And then there is temporary insanity, which isn't just a get-out-of-jail-free card, it's very much real, but is typically set off by dormant or unacknowledged mental illness.

Quote from DVD;359304:
I think you're absolutely right. And I don't believe that dad is part of that 1% that would take the 'higher road'. I think his motivations would more likely stem from guilt rather than anything else.

You may indeed be right... who knows. If it was guilt, I wonder how far that guilt rides, though. Was it just because he had been too strict on his son, or are there deeper issues... probably.

Quote from paladin;359351:
depends on the circumstance. it may present an immediate need, desire or want to kill someone, while not having an overall desire to do so.

Need perhaps, but if there's a need any subsequent want or desire is null. If you need to kill someone to survive yourself, then technically you would want to. But even in that moment, you shouldn't want to kill them. It should be out of necessity.

Quote from paladin;359351:
besides, your initial statement didn't mention want or desire - just that shooting to kill = unstable.

You're right it didn't - the clarification of my definition of unstable did (the definition you asked for before replying). :P