*Warning : This story is graphic and heartbreaking and deals with a very sensitive subject.
Heather Trujillo, 16, and her boyfriend, Lamar Roberts, 17 were babysitting three of Heather’s younger siblings when they decided to act out some moves from Mortal Kombat on Heather’s seven year old sister Zoe. They hit her, they kicked her, and they dropped her on her side repeatedly until she was unable to get up. Zoe died on December 6th from blunt force trauma to her brain and central nervous system. Her neck muscles were bleeding, her body had more than 20 bruises, and her right wrist was broken.
From denverpost.com :
Roberts, who claimed to be a martial-arts expert with his hands registered as “lethal weapons, said Zoe had asked him to stop hitting her but that he didn’t because “…I was drunk.”
Roberts said he had performed a back kick on her, then kicked her again as she ran toward him. She fell back and didn’t get up. She had stopped breathing, and Trujillo and Roberts waited 15 minutes before calling for help.
They said they put her in a bath, which temporarily revived her, but that she stopped breathing again. Roberts said he cracked an egg in her mouth “to see if she was messing around with them.”
The egg went down her throat, the affidavit stated.
Finally, the mother and paramedics were called. Zoe was taken to the Northern Colorado Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.
This is not about video games. It’s about two disturbed, violent teenagers who clearly have no concept of right or wrong. If they weren’t acting out scenes from Mortal Kombat, they would have been acting out scenes from any violent movie, any violent tv show, any example of violence they had witnessed.
This is not about video games. It’s about young children being left under the care of people that clearly shouldn’t have been trusted with that task. Caring for a seven year old and two three year olds is not a walk in the park. Their babysitter should have been a mature adult capable of caring for multiple young children responsibly. Regardless of what excuse the mother offers for her babysitter selection, there are always choices, ALWAYS.
This is not about video games. It’s about the loss of an innocent young child. My heart goes out to everybody touched by this senseless tragedy.
Source [Kotaku]
Posted by ResilientMonkey on December 20, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Wow. It scares me to think that people can do that to one another. I am deeply saddened.
I also agree, it’s not the video games to blame. Though I’m sure people will blame them. As I have heard before, “It’s not guns that kill people, it’s people that kill people.”
My heart goes out to the family of this young girl.
Posted by ML7 on December 20, 2007 at 3:30 pm
wow……..some world we live in huh?
I really feel sorry for the family of the young girl.
I agree too. Dont blame the video game for this. But, i have a feeling that Jack Thompson is gonna see this and say Oh!!!!!!!!!! See!!!!!!!!! Blame video game for this!!!!!!!.If you dont know who he is (If your a gamer, most likey you know him…….) google him and see.
Posted by Cayote on December 20, 2007 at 3:43 pm
:(
Posted by Florence on December 20, 2007 at 3:52 pm
As a mom… I’m at a lost about this. I can’t even immagine what I would do if something tragic like this happens to my daughter. My heart goes out to Zoe’s mother.
Posted by Luke on December 20, 2007 at 4:56 pm
I believe that being drunk is no excuse.
I am just speechless at this recklessness.
Posted by momohine on December 20, 2007 at 5:20 pm
wow, i’m also speechless. how horrible.
Posted by bs angel on December 20, 2007 at 5:32 pm
First, let me say that I am very sorry for her loss as I am sorry for anybody who is touched by this tragedy.
That being said, I believe the mother bears partial responsibility with this. When parents choose to leave their children to people who are not capable caretakers, they have to shoulder part of the blame. And her 16 year old daughter and 17 year old boyfriend obviously were not suitable babysitters.
I doubt this was the first sign that the two teenagers had immature and violent tendencies. You don’t go from being a completely peaceful person to beating a seven year old girl to death. There were signs to their nature that were more than likely ignored.
The mother did not have to leave her children under their care. There are always choices. She could have opted to call in sick and worse case scenario, risk losing her job. In the whole scheme of things, risking your children’s life is not worth a night of work. Period.
I am sure this comes across as harsh but as someone that used to work with abused and neglected children, mothers (and fathers) need to take more responsibility for their actions as it pertains to their children. It is our duty as parents to protect our children. When you agree to have a child, you are agreeing to take care of them. At least that is how it should be. Yes, some things are completely out of our control. This is not one of them however. The two teenagers are obviously to blame, but the mother is not innocent in this either.
As a parent, this whole story breaks my heart.
Posted by Silvercube on December 20, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Why did they want to act out Mortal Kombat moves on a child?
If they had not played Mortal Kombat- would they have still done this horrible act?
Where is the responsibility in people these days!!!??
Posted by Canvas Grey on December 20, 2007 at 6:52 pm
So many times we expect our children to “just know” how to act, how to play together, how to “work things out”….I don’t agree with that outlook. Because left to “figure it out” they will turn to what they’ve been ABLE to understand in their immature mind. Just as one must learn to read and write so we must teach empathy, compassion, sympathy, and understanding. I hope during their rehabilitation they will learn these things. They need to understand what she was thinking/feeling as they did this to her. God rest her young soul.
Posted by -S- on December 21, 2007 at 7:15 am
You know…my friend linked me to this article last night and I knew it was just going to burst up everywhere in an instant…
I honestly just don’t know what to say. Angel, I totally agree, this has NOTHING to do with video games, and if Senators and the like decide to jump on the ‘down with violent gaming’ bandwagon, I’m seriously just going to flip out. How could video games be blamed at all when it’s just clearly not the problem? The caretakers were DRUNK at the time. When asked “why didn’t you stop”, he literally responded “well..I was drunk”.
What kind of a person does this? Gets wasted and then decides it’d be really cool to start physically abusing some little kid?
If you look at Heather’s ‘mug shot’ you can clearly see that she looks depressed. REALLY depressed. Like she’s realized what kind of a situation she’s in, and theres tears in her eyes depressed. And she damn well should be – she’s now fully responsible in the brutal death of her own half sister, and if sentanced she could spend 48 years in jail.
That’s right, 48 years.
That’s your entire life in one sentance. Just the quick verbal decision could put this girl and her boyfriend in Jail for the rest of their natural born lives. Think about it, they’re teenagers. They’ll never get to go to college, find their passion in lives, get a job, drive a car, go to the beach, bask in the sun, have a family, grow old with old friends and live life. Nothing. And honestly? I hate to sound like the most cold hearted bastard in the world, but they deserve it. And I’d like someone to prove me otherwise.
It kind of irritates me that every article on this story I’ve read has in the title “Mortal Kombat”, when the reality of it, already pointed out by Angel, was this had nothing to do with video games. At all. The title should read in every paper – “Drunk and deeply disturbed individuals responsible in the brutal beating to death of a child”. People need to stop making dumb connections to the world of entertainment and need to start making sure that people like this get the help, or in this case, severe punishment that they deserve.
Posted by tanaka sagara on December 22, 2007 at 4:26 pm
in the immortal words of Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, “’shitty parents raise stupid kids’, Is it so hard to teach a child not to shoot people?”*
I’m really getting sick of hearing the same story told over and over again and the masses (especially the mass media) coming to the same conclusion every time. video games are not the problem. movies arn’t the problem. comics arn’t the problem. music is not the problem. books arn’t the problem. stage isn’t the problem. heck, cave drawing’s arn’t the problem. ART ISN’T THE PROBLEM. PEOPLE ARE! but that’s us. all it is now is the news going around going “why would sombody do this” every time there’s a school shooting or something. and than if it get’s big enough the polletitions go and find the easyest scape goat. plan and simple. and so is the answer. the anser is it dosn’t matter. it dosn’t matter what games they played, or if they where drunk. they did something wrong. they’re getting punished. don’t do what they did. end story
let’s just be happy there isn’t a new grand theft auto out right now or we’d never hear the end of this.
why must the innocent suffer for the wicked’s stupidity?
*rest of the strip:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2001/20011203h.gif
Posted by JustChris on December 28, 2007 at 1:34 am
Yes, I don’t really see where the prosecutors came up with the Mortal Kombat connection. The article doesn’t explain. The real problem here is that these kids were poorly supervised and with alcohol.