Nine-Year-Old Boy Killed While Enjoying His PlayStation 3

"He got the PlayStation for Christmas and was very happy. He was so happy."

Anthony Maldonado was a bright, popular fourth-grade student from Palisades Park, N.J., who spent his holidays with his relatives in Harlem.

On January 2nd at around 3 a.m., Anthony was left alone with a family friend -- Alejandro Morales. The two were reportedly engrossed by a Tony Hawk game on Anthony's newly purchased PlayStation 3 when a struggle erupted that left the nine-year-old beaten and stabbed to death by Morales.

Although the motives remain unclear, Morales was known to be trouble on the street, allegedly having a violent past. Despite this, the New York Police Department believe the fight broke out over the game.

While Morales has been detained and charged, the media has selected another perpetrator to level blame upon -- the video game console. Efforts by the police and news outlets to imply that the PS3 had something to do with this tragedy only work to alleviate Morales of accountability.

Blaming an inanimate entertainment device helps no one and betrays the memory of this well-loved child. [via New York Daily News]

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Joshua Henderson

January 04, 2010

WTF is wrong with people!! This 9 year old loses his life WAAY too early because of some dumbass who couldn't control his temper. That is just so frustrating. This guy deserves the death penalty IMO but I know he won't receive it.

Pete Davison

I read a report on this the other day. The implication was that the PlayStation caused this, but there was no evidence whatsoever given to prove it.

Shameful, lazy reporting on a tragic event. As always.

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Bryan Harper

Of course it was the videogame. Not the prick that did it. Blame videogames. Easymode.

Jeffrey J. Wilson

Exactly Brian, what do you think this is, a society where PEOPLE are held accountable for their actions? Silly Rabbit... It's all the entertainment or pornography or eating too many twinkies or the witches casting spells that are the problem. "McDonald's made me fat!" Yeah, and it's your fault for eating so much of it, dumb ass. Well, dumb fat ass at this point I guess... Get out of your lawyer's office, onto a treadmill and start taking responsibility. If an argument occured over a Playstation game and a 25 year old adult stabbed and killed a 9 year old child, then IT IS THE ADULT'S FAULT! End of story.

Imagine if this had happened while they were watching football or playing Monopoly. We wouldn't hear about it at all, or at least the headline wouldn't say, "NFL blamed for child's death," or "Parker Brothers sued over violent board game." We'd actually be blaming the perpetrator, rather than a company that manufactured the object about which a fatal argument took place over... Wow, that sentence actually made sense? Weird, sounded more Yoda-like in my head than it came out...

And no, this guy doesn't deserve the death penalty. NO ONE should be killed, ever, even those who do kill. Their punishment should be to sit in a box for the rest of their lives so they can LIVE with what they've done, preferably a box where the victims families can yell at them forever, but I'm not in charge of prisons. Killing a killer is still murder, however you want to phrase the wording (death penalty, capital punishment, lethal injection, etc) and who the hell are we to decide who lives and dies?

Cassandra Brabon

January 05, 2010

I guess blaming the PS3 was their last resort; they couldn't blame the game for being violent because they were playing Tony Hawk. How sad.

Nathan Andrews

For people that don't know, they were playing Tony Hawk: RIDE (read about it elsewhere). Such a horrible thing to happen to what looks like a very nice boy. The murderer needs to be killed in the same fashion so he knows firsthand just how horrendous this atrocity is.

Spencer Gregory

So it goes.