According to Fox News, police at the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office in New Mexico say that Nehemiah Griego, 15, the teen accused of killing his family on January 19, became excited when he spoke with authorities about his love for violent video games. One of the games he mentioned, was "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare", the same game that Newtown, Connecticut shooter Adam Lanza played prior to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 children and 7 adults - including himself - dead.
Griego, who was known around town for his penchant for wearing military garb, is said to have had an argument with his mother, Sarah, 41, on Friday night. He confessed to getting a gun out of a closet in the home and going into her bedroom around 1:00 a.m. to shoot her while she slept. He then shot his nine year-old brother, Zephania, and two sisters, Jael, 5, and Angelina, 2. He waited for his father to return home from work five hours later, and killed him as well.
Griego said he also planned to go to a local Walmart to continue his shooting rampage where he hoped to die in a hail of gunfire. Fortunately, he never made it to the store. He texted a picture of his dead mother to his 12 year-old girlfriend, who spent most of Saturday with him before bringing him to the church where his father had been a pastor. While at the church, he confessed the killings to a security guard who phone 911.
A penchant for violent video games has been the common denominator in a number of mass shootings in recent years. Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian shooter who gunned down 77 people in 2011 was also a big fan of Call to Duty. James Holmes, who gunned down 12 people in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater last year, was an avid player of another violent video game known as World of Warcraft.
Even though a recent poll found that 62 percent of the public thinks violent video games are one of the reasons behind the upsurge in mass killings, authorities have thus far focused primarily on gun control as a way to stop the random slaughters that have taken dozens of innocent lives in the last five years alone.
Parents of gaming teens may want to check out this list of the 10 most violent video games of all time published by PC Magazine.
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