Post by Trublu on Jul 29, 2005 21:03:23 GMT -5
I just read this article in Reader's Digest (which a friend also found online) and thought it would sound familiar to you guys.
www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=24969
Police Testify in Trial of Cop Killer, Uses Video Game Defense
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FAYETTE, Ala. (AP) -- Witnesses choked back tears Tuesday in describing the grim scene at Fayette police headquarters after two officers and a dispatcher were killed by gunshots to the head, a crime the defense blames on a cop-killing video game.
Tim Brown, the first paramedic to arrive, said he saw the dispatcher, Leslie ''Ace'' Mealer.
''I visualized the bullet wound in his head, the brain matter and the blood,'' said Brown. ''Then I checked his pulse. He was dead.''
Brown did the same for Fayette police officers Arnold Strickland and James Crump. He said all had been shot in the head and were dead.
The Tuscaloosa News, reporting on the trial's second day of testimony Tuesday, said police officer Jimmy Pendley tearfully recounted his walk through the station. Pendley said he noticed the paperwork that would link the killings to Devin Darnell Moore, on trial for capital murder in the June 7, 2003 killings.
Lawyers for Moore acknowledge he fired the gun but contend he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and was deluded by obsessive playing of a ''Grand Theft Auto'' video game that includes police killings.
''The way you win this video game is by getting a stolen car, getting arrested by the police, killing the police and escaping,'' defense attorney Jim Standridge told the jury in opening statements Monday. ''Does that sound familiar?''
Moore, who was 18 at the time of the crime, is on trial in the deaths of Strickland, 55, Crump, 40, and Mealer, 38. He's accused of grabbing Strickland's gun while being fingerprinted on a stolen car charge, then using it to kill all three in the station. He then stole a police vehicle and led authorities on a high-speed chase before he was caught.
Prosecutors told the jury Moore was not deluded and killed to avoid being locked up.
''The evidence will be compelling that he knew what he was doing,'' District Attorney Chris McCool said.
Standridge said Moore suffered the stress disorder from abuse as a child, with obsessive playing of the video game influencing his actions. A civil lawsuit has been filed by families of the three victims against the manufacturers of the video game and retail stores where Moore bought it.
Information from: The Tuscaloosa News
www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=24969
Police Testify in Trial of Cop Killer, Uses Video Game Defense
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FAYETTE, Ala. (AP) -- Witnesses choked back tears Tuesday in describing the grim scene at Fayette police headquarters after two officers and a dispatcher were killed by gunshots to the head, a crime the defense blames on a cop-killing video game.
Tim Brown, the first paramedic to arrive, said he saw the dispatcher, Leslie ''Ace'' Mealer.
''I visualized the bullet wound in his head, the brain matter and the blood,'' said Brown. ''Then I checked his pulse. He was dead.''
Brown did the same for Fayette police officers Arnold Strickland and James Crump. He said all had been shot in the head and were dead.
The Tuscaloosa News, reporting on the trial's second day of testimony Tuesday, said police officer Jimmy Pendley tearfully recounted his walk through the station. Pendley said he noticed the paperwork that would link the killings to Devin Darnell Moore, on trial for capital murder in the June 7, 2003 killings.
Lawyers for Moore acknowledge he fired the gun but contend he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and was deluded by obsessive playing of a ''Grand Theft Auto'' video game that includes police killings.
''The way you win this video game is by getting a stolen car, getting arrested by the police, killing the police and escaping,'' defense attorney Jim Standridge told the jury in opening statements Monday. ''Does that sound familiar?''
Moore, who was 18 at the time of the crime, is on trial in the deaths of Strickland, 55, Crump, 40, and Mealer, 38. He's accused of grabbing Strickland's gun while being fingerprinted on a stolen car charge, then using it to kill all three in the station. He then stole a police vehicle and led authorities on a high-speed chase before he was caught.
Prosecutors told the jury Moore was not deluded and killed to avoid being locked up.
''The evidence will be compelling that he knew what he was doing,'' District Attorney Chris McCool said.
Standridge said Moore suffered the stress disorder from abuse as a child, with obsessive playing of the video game influencing his actions. A civil lawsuit has been filed by families of the three victims against the manufacturers of the video game and retail stores where Moore bought it.
Information from: The Tuscaloosa News