Thursday, March 14, 2013

Christian academy student shoots both of his parents in the head after one of them tells him that he was "meeting the definition of insanity." Gee, ya think?

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A 14-year-old student at a Christian academy in Washington state has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting both of his parents in the head after they restricted him from playing violent video games. 

Grant County prosecutors on Monday said that they were asking that 14-year-old Nathan Brooks be tried as an adult for the attempted murder of his parents. 

According to a Moses Lake police report obtained by iFIBER One News, Nathon Brooks had considered killing his parents, 38-year-old Jonathan Brooks and 39-year-old Elizabeth Brooks, since the age of 8. He had recently been been grounded for two weeks from using “electronic devices” — including playing video games — and had been punished with detention for being late to class. 

Nathon Brooks had admitted to police that he had been obsessed with video games. 

“He said he quit playing violent video games because he thought they were making him more violent,” Moses Lake police Sgt. Mike Williams noted in the document. “I asked him how much he played video games, and he told me ‘24/7,’ up until he got his electronics taken away.” 

Nathon Brooks indicated that he had decided to shoot his parents after his mother told his he was “meeting the definition of insanity” by disobeying over and over again. He said that his parents had been angry after he recently took one of their credit cards. 

On Friday, Police believe the boy pried open a gun safe to retrieve a .22 caliber pistol. After listening to music for about 90 minutes, he decided to kill his parents.

First thing I would point out concerning this story, and as somebody who has worked with the mentally ill for years, is that if you are living with somebody who is "meeting the definition of insanity" the LAST thing you do is tell them that.

You get them help.

Another thing, While it may be a knee jerk reaction in this case to blame this on the video games, if this young man has been considering murdering his parents since age 8, that he has a deep seated mental illness that may have been exacerbated by the games, it may also have served as a pressure relief valve which provided an outlet for this young man's extreme emotions.

After all he did not act on his fantasies of killing his parents, until he no longer had access to the games,

All in all it sounds like these parents did EVERYTHING wrong in this scenario. I am sure that putting him in the Christian Academy was because they believed that this young man needed some Jesus in his life to correct his behaviors, when in fact he needed a psychological evaluation and access to mental health supports.

It appears that the ONLY saving grace here was that the caliber of weapon used spared the life of his parents. If he had an assault weapon or a higher caliber handgun he would have successfully murdered his parents, and likely be locked away for the rest of his life.

It looks like there are any number of handy places to lay the blame in this scenario. There is mental illness, violent video games, poor parenting, and access to guns. And it seems like all of them could share equal blame here.

However I must point out that the boy did not bash his parents in the head with a shovel, or stab them in their sleep. Instead he went through all of the trouble of prying open the, clearly poorly constructed, safe to get the gun, because the gun represented power, and he needed to feel powerful in order to kill his parents.

Essentially this was a catastrophe waiting to happen, but the trigger that made it a reality was access to a weapon whose sole function is to end human lives.

24 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:37 AM

    not another 'lets blame the video games' defense...it's utter BS...my daughter has been playing those games and watching gore/horror and now listens to gore/death metal non-stop since she was 10 and she couldn't be more loving towards us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:08 AM

      With you on this one. My son is now 15 and has been playing these games, starting at 8 with the HALO series, right up to Modern Warfare, Black Ops, etc. And he is damn good at them too! (when the HALO REACH beta was out, he was only 12, and ranked 782 World Wide - for you non-gamers, that's amongst millions of players within a 2 1/2 week period). He too is planning on making his career based on his passions. He began High School this year, and is the only Gr. 9 student taking TWO Gr. 10 computer classes (and kicking ass in them with a 96% at present). Although he doesn't listen to metal, I do, and have since before he was born (tho I personally prefer European Symphonic / gothic). Call me a horrid mom as well, don't really give a damn. I KNOW I have done right by my kids, and they both love me (purple, or red, or blonde hair and all) to death. As I do them.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:04 AM

      Same with you 9:08
      My 14 year old is a loving caring compassionate person who is a gamer. WE got him into video games to help his coordination problems from a birth injury. He, too, wants to work in the video game design industry. He is taking college prep work. We are lucky that one of the top ten schools for video design is in our backyard, so to speak - and hard to get into.
      Video games do not make people killers.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous6:54 AM

    6:37 lets hope you have your guns locked up!

    I bet this kid was "loving" towards his parents too, although he looks psycho to me.

    I hope he gets tried as a adult. Any dogs, cats missing in the area? He's a stone cold killer.

    6:37 if your stupid enough to admit here that your daughter watches video games and "death metal" I hope your smart enough to lock up your guns.

    Why are you so lazy you won't take your kid to the zoo or a nature walk? You let your kid watch shit and listen to shit her brain will turn to shit. You're a lazy ass mom! Remember You reap what you sow. Or KARMA!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:02 AM

      Okay, 6:54...first off, i dont have any guns in my house, as I am anti-gun, so you're not the smart one here...#2: How the hell do you know what I do or don't do with my kid? #3: Death metal is a genre of metal music, that my husband and I also listen with her and go to concerts with her, sounds like someone has an issue with 'metal music'. Lastly, listening to death metal does not make her brain turn to shit, in fact it has helped her and she now also has a career plan based on her love of death metal music. Why in the fuck are you so hateful towards a stranger. Sounds like someone is a hateful, biased dickhead...and it's you!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:27 AM

      Riiiiight your brag that your daughter listens to "death metal and watches videos" ?
      And the ad hominem attacks.
      Yes I called you "stupid" you admitted all the above on a public blog. You are not mother of the year. Suck it up buttercup.
      Who is the hateful one trollie?

      Delete
    3. Sarah Paylin8:34 AM

      Tsk, tsk, tsk
      8:02 sounds like 6:54 touched a nerve.
      LOL.

      I can see your lovely child now, blue or purple hair, piercing and tats all over her face, you know for her "Career"!

      You sound like a "lovely mother" snark on!

      Delete
    4. BabyRaptor10:35 AM

      Oh, look...Another clueless Conservative idiot...

      It really must suck when reality doesn't match up with your little delusion. Is that why you take it out on random people on the internet? I'd sooner have the lovely person you're attacking (without knowing, might I add, aren't just so awesome) as a friend or a parent than you.

      802, don't let them get to you. They're just miserable assholes who have nothing better to do than attack people who are clearly better and better off than them.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:09 AM

      So happy your "children" have careers in death metal and video games.

      And who is judging?

      If someone disagrees with you they are Cons?
      What a bunch of Liberal assholes! I have to agree with Krusty here. Libs are assholes as much as Cons are.
      I think y'all might look in a mirror to see the miserable assholes.

      Going to take my kid to the beach.
      Not to church, b/c the earth is our church in this family.

      I can see the high standards in education here equal those in the payme family.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous12:59 PM

      How do any of you manage to raise children properly when you spend so much time on blogs? Just askin'.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous6:59 AM

    G, Guns are for "Killing"! that is their sole purpose.
    And the gun company's are immune to be held responsible as we saw in the Rachel Maddow clip you shared.

    People can dress killing up as Hunting, or Protecting (their possessions) but its still KILLING!

    A Dog will protect your house. You can hunt with a bow and arrow like Native Americans used to. At least that is fair hunting. I saw Stupid asshole Ted Nugent killed 455 pigs with a machine gun for Bill Maher!
    http://s.shr.lc/13SCVTJ

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:25 AM

    I cannot imagine having to parent kids like this one in our world today! It's so easy to judge the parents in what they did wrong. My heart goes out to them.

    I had a regular teenager that I raised and there were days I thought I was going to lose my mind. This example would be frightening.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:04 PM

      When I was growing up at the first sign of this type of behavior you were shipped off to military academy to learn some discipline and manners. My brother was a hothead and he was away from 4th to 9th grade and was allowed to return home for High School provided he minded my parents and kept a 3.0. He did, because he learned the rules.

      These days parents attempt discipline on their own and get shot. What has gone wrong in this world?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:03 PM

      There are children who have anger and emotional problems that go way beyond bad manners. This sounds like one of those cases.

      I'm curious to know what the "first sign" was; it must have been a pretty bad first incident for your parents to send a nine year old off to military academy.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous8:46 AM

    FLOTUS and POTUS in 'Vogue' say family still is first

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/03/14/flotus-and-potus-in-vogue-say-family-still-comes-first/1986191/

    http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/03/13/firstlady-voguecover-3_4_r536_c534.jpg?1b79b3da202957124496e3768cfb7b67cdb10c81

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous9:08 AM

    What are the odds that there was some prayer based 'treatment' here?

    Qwack qwack.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous9:16 AM

    This tragedy is due to the toxic combination of jesus and guns. Maybe one of the disqualifications in the background check system should be if you have accepted jesus as your lord and savior.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11:00 AM

    How bad of shape are his parents in though? It might be better if they died if they are totally brain injured. Sad for everyone involved.sounds like the kid needed intervention since a very young age.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Leland11:26 AM

    I'm not sure banning JESUS is the way to go. His earthly teachings were pretty solid, peaceful propositions - until the CHURCH got hold of it!

    Banning RELIGION? Oh HELL yeah! If we were able to get that nest of vipers out of our hair we would be so much better off.

    All we need to live by is Love, Understanding, Compassion, Forgiveness and Tolerance.

    Shit, the three Abrahamic religions spend at least half their time hating each other! They spend the other half of their time figuring out how to control people by lying to them and making them feel guilt and preaching hate. Christianity is love? Religion of peace? Horse shit!

    How does all that hate promote peace?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous11:39 AM

    For once I'm going to have to disagree with you Gryphen. Blaming parenting for this is a leap, if the child were violent since 8. And parent's who are at their limits can and will say anything in moments of weakness, haplessness, desperation. I feel bad for them, they were assaulted with an intent to kill by their child. They shouldn't have the gun in their home, but this is bad all around.

    ReplyDelete
  11. And it's entirely preventable, that is the saddest thing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous1:44 PM

    warm & fuzzy NRA sponsored headline:
    A 50-year-old man commits suicide.... shot and killed himself in front of a group of people, including children, who were attending a gun safety class
    at a gun range.

    Like the CDC report said: 300% higher risk of suicide if guns are present

    http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Man-kills-self-in-front-of-children-at-Bellevue-gun-safety-class-198073701.html

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anita Winecooler2:38 PM

    The parents had faith that their intervention was enough(Sending him to a school that enforced their family values and religious beliefs), but obviously it fell short. It's too easy for them to deny the obvious fact that their son displayed symptoms of mental illness, but sending him to Christian School didn't necessarily cause the event, it just lulled the parents into a false security that they were doing "something" to "help".

    This toxic soup of blaming video games, music is easy, but the problem was having guns in a house where there's a volatile mentally ill teen. (Remember Mr Lanza?) A lot of untreated mental illnesses can accelerate when kids reach puberty. It's a shame he didn't get the help he really needed, I hope his story helps some other family dealing with the same problem.

    The first step is removing the stigma of mental illness AND making it easier to be addressed by professionals. Covering the medicine and therapy would be an investment that pays off by saving lives.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous6:42 PM

    I'm wondering if their religion prevented this child from getting mental health treatment? This child was having thoughts of murder since age 8, he could have been helped and his parents would be alive. So many fundies only believe in getting help from a preacher not a Dr.

    ReplyDelete

Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.