It’s been a cheerful few days for video game crime news, hasn’t it? First was the teenage father who sawed a former friend’s neck down to the trachea over some Xbox Live name-calling. Now an Iowa boy says he killed and attempted to rape his mother after she took away Call of Duty.
That’s according to the 911 call 14-year-old Noah Crooks of Osage, Iowa placed on March 24, 2012, the night he shot his mother 20 times. It was played in court this week as his trial began. His mother, Gretchen Crooks, had confiscated his video game about three hours before she was shot to death, an act believed to spark the fit of rage that led to her killing. It was the first homicide reported in that town since 1898.
“I’m not joking at all. She’s dead. I’m scared. I killed my mum with my .22. I don’t know why I did it,” he told the 911 dispatcher. “I tried to rape her. I tried to rape her but I couldn’t do it.” He spoke of playing Call of Duty and said his mother took it away because he got bad grades. “Something just came over me,” he said.
Crooks shot her with the .22 rifle he was given as an 11-year-old. Considering a five-year-old in Kentucky just shot his two-year-old sister to death with a candy-coloured, small-size .22 rifle made especially for children, one would think this type of product or gift-giving practice should come in for a public arse-kicking, but I doubt it will.
The defence opened its case on Friday with testimony from Noah Crooks’ friends, one of whom played Call of Duty with him online. The testimony is meant to establish some type of rapid change in Crooks’ behaviour. Despite constant references to an attention deficit disorder and the rambling 911 call in which he appears divorced from reality, he did say, “I feel crazy and I know I’m not.”
Jury listens to 911 tape during testimony in Crooks case [Mason City (Iowa) Globe Gazette, via Destructoid. Image via KAAL-TV.]
Comments
89 responses to “Call Of Duty Blamed As Boy Admits Killing Mum With Birthday-Gift Rifle”
Wait…there’s attempted rape in CoD now? Does anybody even play the accused games before making an accusation? If anything blame television and movies!
You haven’t played much CoD online have you? Kids are always threatening to rape me.
Now that you mention it, maybe that is the reason I have yet to buy an X30/PS3
Kids these days. Bunch of savages.
It’s funny how you are using one child to kids these days, savages. I would like to point out that situations like this are extremely god damn rare and this child had something mentally wrong with him. Unless you have any statements or facts saying that young people are all horrible, please shut your generic trap and do some research.
Jesus, calm the fuck down man. For starters I wasn’t commenting on the one kid in the story, I replying to Bangers comment referring to the number of pre-pubescent boys threatening to rape people and what not over the chat in online games such as CoD. My comment was based on my personal experience, and as I inferred from Banger’s comment and other people I know who have experienced and sometimes perpetrated such things. So I don’t think I need to shut my generic trap and cite any sources to back up what was basically a throw-away ‘tut-tut’ type comment. Sheesh.
mum?
I did also once or twice get called a ‘motherfucker’, yes.
‘It’s the Tea Bagging! The “Tea Bagging” is a sexual act simulated in a violent videogame that makes you want to rape and kill your mother!’
~ Fox News.
I don’t think he specifically mentioned anything about it being in the game, just that having the game taken away made him want to rape and kill.
Naturally.
Why don’t we blame the person responsible for committing the actions they do, rather than external influences that have little or nothings to do with their behavior.
People the world over play video games and watch violent movies. The gun related deaths seem to be mainly a US phenomenon.
I have to wonder, did he mean “rape” as in “nonconsensual sex” or as in “pwn”? Either is possible, but given the reputation of 14-year-olds on Xbox Live and the fact that he cared so much about the game, I’d have to at least consider that in his mind at the time of making the call “rape” was synonymous with “shooting many times so she’s good and dead”.
Not that it makes him much less of a sicko. A little bit, perhaps.
why do all these crazy people play video games?
Because playing video games is a common hobby. Why can’t they blame ‘playing tennis’ or ‘watching movies’ as the cause?
Proven fact: 100% of all rapists drink water and breath air! Quick, ban air and water and save our kids before it’s too late!!!
Jesus. He was obviously inspired by the mum rape scene in black ops 2.
Isn’t CoD 18+ in the states?
there’s no enforced rating system for games in the states, it is a guideline system to help people make informed decisions.
that’s not true, children 18+ can’t buy M-rated games, but their parents can buy them and give them to their children legally.
Sorry mate, its not like that at all. The kids can buy any game, because in the US the ratings aren’t enforced at POS (Point of Sale). They should just enforce it. Problem solved. Also don’t buy anyone a gun ever. Period.
Kids throw tantrums when things they like are taken away from them. A child throwing a tantrum with easy access to a rifle is a terrifying proposition. Once again, the issue here isn’t video games. It’s gun control.
Guns dont kill people
People do
People with guns.
We can’t exactly take away the people. We CAN take away the guns. Why the hell do kids needs guns?
Guns dont kill people.
But they help.
Wow that’s disgusting… how could she take away his game like that.
So a 14 year old is playing games he shouldn’t be allowed to play and gets given guns for his birthday, obviously has other mental issues but video games are the culprit…
Something is wrong in that.
How can you say that when it’s clear the problem here isn’t the firearm being owned by a child, it is the Mother’s failure to own her own rifle to defend herself with. If everyone had access to high powered murderous death dealing firearms, there’d be fewer shootings. It’s obvious idiot!
Lets look at the REAL problem here shall we…
Haha Agreed!
Gun Control can never work as proven by the statistical anomally that is Australia.
Warning this Video makes John Howard look freakin incredible.
Eep we’re planet x! There’s alot Howard did in his time I have a lot of respect for him for. I consider him to essentially be ‘the last of the old guard’. One of the last politicians that, despite wether you liked him or not, you had to respect him. He at least had the courage of his convictions to do what he believed in, such as the Port Arthur massacre gun control. I never once voted for him and I violently disagreed with workchoices but I always had some level of respect for him, unlike the leaders these days.
Yep, took his policy to election and let the people decide.
Was defeated by the new “Sunrise with Mel & Kochie” style politician (on both sides) which is more worried about popularity than policy.
You know, I LOVE that description lol. It so fits politicians these days lol ‘Sunrise with Mel and Kochie politicians’ lol! They’re more worried about how they look on morning tv and come across than how the nation is actually going… my parents and I were discussing what I said last night and they agree with me. Howard is definitely the last of his kind. Possibly there’s one or two left in the local governments but on a federal level they’re gone. Now it’s all social media politicians. Media whores.
BS. Howard’s campaign was nothing but scare-tactics and lies. One of his major ‘selling points’ was keeping interest rates low and threatening that the opposition would let them skyrocket. Howard got in, interest rates soared, and thus began the era of financial hardship for the common man that has been plaguing Australia for nearly two decades.
Whoopdefucking-doo. lol. Go Professor Duncan, go!
*hearts* him as Professor Duncan on Community 😀
“All life ends in death which we as a species are cursed with knowing which ends with……..soooooomething….. really, this is NOT my field!”
My thoughts exactly.
How American news will react to this: “Let us not dwell in the perfectly natural, God-given right to give your unstable kid a gun as a present; we’re not here to talk about everything that’s well and good in the world. Rather, let’s us stress the fact that the kid in question had been playing one of these satanic, soulcorrupting video-games which, by the dark sorceries etched in it by the foulest demons, completely overrode the poor boy’s will and forced him into the vilest evils: to misuse his gift and legal rights of owning a weapon.”
Heretic! Blasphemor! Why do you try to destroy freedom with your sound reason and logic?!
“I tried to rape her. I tried to rape her but I couldn’t do it.”
Hey kid, when someone says they’re going to ‘rape’ you in CoD, doesn’t mean they’re actually going to force sex upon you. This is the worst goddamn CoD-kid story I’ve ever heard and of course, you give the dropkick teen with anger management issues a gun as a gift.
Have to admit, this is close to what I imagine the CoD douchebags I’ve played against, look like.
Americans….
If this was really something to be blamed for CoD he would have called her a noob, done the act and tea bagged her. Not “tried to rape” which is just retarded. The kids just insane in the membrane, this isn’t CoDs fault. Its a lot of things all bunched together really. Bad parenting, gun control, kids a fool etc…
“candy-coloured, small-size .22 rifle made especially for children” what the hell is the world coming too!
Reminds of this article I saw the other day.. They ended up pimping the company who makes them FOR KIDS at the end of the article too, disgusting.
http://news.sky.com/story/1085554/boy-5-kills-sister-2-with-childrens-rifle
Edit: If I had seen where your quote came from it was about the story I linked, whoops.
Lets see… In the US you can’t drive until you are in your late teens, you can’t drink until you are even older, you can’t vote until you are an adult, but by god you can be given a rifle and the capacity to murder people when you are 4 years old; especially if you have a psychological or sociological medical condition.
But oh no, it has to be the games the kid is playing and has absolutely nothing to do with arming someone who may not have the appropriate psychological resources to make value judgements. I wonder if arming the school teachers would have prevented this…
This is beyond fucked up. How in hell could you pin blame on a video game for this kids deranged thoughts?! He seriously has some deep psychological problems if he thought of raping her. This kid needs help fast. I don’t see him getting that in the USA though, which is sad, so he’s going to probably be a bigger lost cause later on in life. Sad.
Geesus kotaku by posting this you are just confirming the problem ffs. the kid had mental issues, the parents were irresponsible there is no game connection stop trying to make one.
While this kid is all sorts of messed up, having access to this game wasn’t helping him either. Combining that type of personality with a game like that was creating a countdown till something along these lines, or worse, would happen.
For those of you who like math, here’s the formula:
Kid with psychological issues + Violent Game + Real Life Weapon = Really Bad Thing.
Yeah, its amazing. I am over 30 years of age, and have played games since the XT (286) days. I loved Mortal Kombat when i came out, but did it make me want to tear someones spine out or punch a hole through them? Investigators need to spend more time looking at the person and what sort of environment the child has been grown up in. They need to look into his personality and influences, they need to do a whole bunch of things before deciding ‘it was video games’, because to me it sounds like an excuse, and its an excuse more people are using every day in an attempt to blame everything else but themselves. And for some reason people are believing them.
Wait.. Let me get this right. She took the game off him, therefore he re-enacted some violence? Did I get that right? Nope. That’s not the game. That’s violent thug trying to use “Video games made me violent” as an excuse.
Christ. I’ve trained in Kungfu for 27 years and I’ve still never punched someone. Obviously, I’m not doing it right.
apparently you have to play a video game – then you’ll punch someone.
I am so sick of stupid people!
This is not gaming news, as tragic and awful as it is. Putting this on a gaming news site just reinforces the stereotype that this is what games do to people when it had nothing to do with this kid’s mental issues.
R18+ game in the hands of a child who has access to a rifle since his parents gave it to him at the age of 11.
I made the part that his parents were responsible for bold. The part that can be blamed on video games is underlined.
im sure there where more reasions for this to have happened than just cod i think more info is needed
One thing stands out for me about these people… They’re all frakked in the head.
All this is, is a very sad story where a kid has murdered his mother and that’s a life lost, regardless whether she was good or not, I think all mothers try their best. Now this kids life if ruined as well, even though it’s by his hands.
We’re so focused on defending our beloved games these days while the other side is so focused on pointing out key factors to why this situation occurred.
When it comes down to it, what we really get is two sides coming close to the fence and putting their arms in the air and going “f it” because at the end of all this, we know screwed up things happen in life and that’s just life and some wishful thinker will hope that if everyone has a kind heart…maybe just maybe these things won’t happen.
DM, I’d love to agree with you, really I would. And yes, I do find it incredibly sad that people are dying and having their lives ruined by this sort of thing. Yes, we defend games, because games are not the reason for these deaths. They may be a contributing factor, but the real reason is through some form of neglect, either the neglect of raising their children to know what is acceptable or the neglect of seeing signs of dangerous behavior of their children.
Academically, I could construct jokes, arguments, and snarky observations.
Emotionally, a woman has been killed by her child doing just what people suggest – limiting video game time for children. And the kid has lost his Mum. Forever. And it was his fault.
Back to logic and academically looking at things… People call giving a kid a firearm bad parenting, but is it really if everyone is doing it and that’s a normal part of your society? We allow kids to drink at 18, but in the US they don’t allow it at 21. Does it cause our 18yr olds to go out and get their punch on and glass each other? Why yes, actually. A few bad apples. Does that make our society irresponsible? Not especially. Just different. Like the US gun culture is different. If everyone in that town had been given guns as children and only one in the last two generations actually killed someone with one, that kind of helps that ‘normalcy’ seem reasonable.
The catch to the difference is the impact. A glassing or punch-up isn’t likely to kill someone quite like a gunshot.
And for the rape thing… yeah. WTF. I guess you could write that off as truly weird in the head, but I wonder a little about the reason for that head weirdness. Killing someone? That’s pretty intense. And what is intensity, chemically? Intensity is all in your head, and by ‘in your head’ I mean slushy chemicals. Adrenaline and similar. At an age where hormones are rampaging out of balance, testosterone and adrenaline are potent brain-chemicals.
Fun fact. Surges in testosterone are linked to aggression… and erections. Both cause and effect. Confusing the two isn’t much of a stretch if you’re a child who hasn’t had much opportunity to viscerally understand outlets for either and the difference between them. ‘Why do I have a boner now, and what am I supposed to do with it?’
Anyone who’s ever had a random ‘pop up’ in the office while working on completely non-sexy spreadsheets with no sexual stimulus or arousal whatsoever should be pretty aware that the function of that organ isn’t always tied to what you’re thinking/feeling.
Also since this kid is from Iowa, why aren’t they also blaming homegrown band Slipknot? Cause doesn’t heavy metal make you want to kill people as well?
Does the NRA pay the lawyers to say it was Video Games?
I’d like to think if I was punished by having my video games taken away when I was 14 I don’t think I’d have had a temper tantrum.
I’m sure if I was that age and was going to have a tantrum, I certainly would not wish death on my parents, let alone consider rape…..
Like a lot of these cases, sure video games could be a contributing factor, but so could tv, movies, books, upbringing, friends and family etc etc…. there are so many different factors that can drive someone to do this. To make sweeping accusations against a certain form of media being the sole cause, despite there being a huge elephant in the room, is just ridiculous.
Parents have the most influence on their children than pretty much anything else in the western world. Don’t blame video games, blame the person who is allowing a 14 year old to play a game that is rated 17-18+ for exposing their child to such a thing in their home.
Yeah because this kid wasn’t disturbed in the first place, shooting his own mother 20 times and then trying to rape her. If we did a census of all the people that played video games, wow, you’d find out 99% have never murdered anyone. Sounds more like a disturbed and/or spoilt kid got ticked off when something was taken away from him – either a personality type derived hereditarily or parenting style, or both. By the way, why is a 14 year old playing a game rated too high for him? I know its insensitive to say, and rest in peace, but the mother could have been aware of the rating of the game she bought and gave to her kid. Oh, but that probably sounds crazy after giving an ELEVEN year old a RIFLE as a birthday present. And the culprit is the video game?
Yes, the kid probably had some psychological problem. Yes the parent/s may have not been a responsible parent. Your right in saying that the big picture needs to be looked at. Its interesting that media seems to want to add more drama to something video game related, as if to say its somehow more criminal to kill someone as a result of something video game related than to have killed for any other reason. Now I don’t think guns are a particularly good thing to have, however it should also be noted that if a gun was not available, would this kid have used a kitchen knife or some other weapon instead ? If so then not having a gun would not have affected the end result. For the same reasons that most gamers don’t go around killing people, having a gun doesn’t mean you’ll go around killing people either. Its the underlying psychological issue that needs to be resolved.
For the record I don’t like guns, don’t have a gun, and believe strict controls need to be in place. I just don’t think that having access to any weapon, automatically means that any given person is a killer or that somehow it makes it easier to be a killer.
No I honestly believe having a gun makes it easier to kill. There’s a difference between someone freely shooting at you from a distance, to having to charge at you with a knife or blunt weapon, and the chance you have at survival. I also believe psychologically it is easier to kill with a gun too, it can feel more dis-attached, as opposed to physically stabbing someone – that is to say the mom would have had more of a chance had the kid attempted to kill her with melee, and he would have been more likely to lose his nerve, too. I’ve seen a couple of papers while I was doing a bachelor’s in psychology that support those notions, though I admittedly doubt there’s enough evidence to confirm it.
I’d rather no one had guns at all, but I understand the right (under the american constitution, at least) to bear arms. Still, I think giving one to a child is inherently irresponsible and stupid. The kid obviously had psychological issues yes (the main causal factor that should be blamed and receive attention), but that doesn’t mean controlling enabling factors or triggers should be ignored, like access to a tool designed to kill or to inappropriate adult entertainment. I’m sure giving a 14 year old – disturbed or not – free access to a car would have unfortunate consequences too.
Agreed. I guess it comes down to temptation. Even if I was angry, and had a gun on the table. I doubt I would use it. It comes down to your own control. When one cannot control themselves for whatever reason, your right in saying that not having access to weapon/s can make a difference. We do however have to keep in mind that ordinary items such as cars, knives or even a bat, can be weapons too. If this kid did not have the gun, its quite possible he could have used something else out of his anger and there’s plenty of cases where alternative weapons were used. Eliminating a type of weapon will reduce this kind of incident happening and reduction of this is definitely something we should strive for. If we were able to find some way of people increasing their control or resisting the temptation, or finding some other way to resolve their anger, it might have a larger impact. Holy grail I know, but I do believe in it.
Call me crazy, but I strongly doubt the taking away of the game was really the problem. The kid said he tried to rape his mother and shot her. I’m sorry, call me insensitive if you so desire. I as a kid and a teenager had games taken away from me if I was letting them get in the way of things that actually mattered. I never tried to rape my mother or father, and never tried to shoot them.
That could be either because. In Australia, access to firearms is limited and not given to children. OR, because I was actually brought up with some sort of common sense and respect for my parents. Possibly both…
And this is why I don’t play Call of Duty anymore.
Obviously children shouldn’t have access to guns any more than they have access to driving a car or drinking alcohol. But I’d also be looking at the medication the child was on. He said “Something just came over me.” which is a typical side effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. They’ll probably assign him a psychologist who will increase his dose until he can’t even remember what planet he is on.
What a psycho little devil spawn!
So we’re glossing over the fact that this kid was given a rifle for a present as an 11 year old?
There’s your problem.
Pretty much my thoughts exactly…
Hey lets give a child a Rifle as a present! NOTHING can go wrong there…. *nothing*
Not 100% defending firearms or anything, I strongly agree with better regulation and control of them.
HOWEVER, when I was younger and living overseas, BB guns were all the rage (and easy to buy). One kid I knew used to run around shooting everything in sight including birds, dogs and even at people (pretty much acting like an a**hole). The others instead set up targets and obstacle areas and had little competitions, never did we fire them at each other or other people/animals because we knew they could be dangerous.
Essentially the main difference came down to the family itself. The kid either didn’t understand or didn’t care about the dangers of the item, the rest of us did. Same thing with video games, when I first played DOOM (when I was 6), I was sat down by my parents and told about how video games were different from real life. I had a healthy understanding of right and wrong from an early age due to good parenting.
Sure access to dangerous weapons is not the best thing, but neither is a lack of understanding of how dangerous they are. If you shoot something, in most cases what you shoot will change, permanently…
I don’t know what this kid is thinking when he shot his mother, he probably think she will respawn or thinks she using a juggernaut perk and the 20 bullets won’t kill her.
Many mite disagree but thats ok but I don’t mind a minor using a rifle or owning one (as long its legal in ur area), as long you teach them gun safety, the parent store the rifle and ammo desperately in a secure safe and only let them use it with supervision in a secure place then its ok.
It’s just bad parenting for letting their 11yo child owning a gun who has unrestricted access to it is a big no no.
Wait, what? Am I the only one here wondering just what kind of person buys their 14-year-old a .22 caliber rifle?
Next we hear of the candy guns, it will be a 5 year old who tried to eat it.
America … the land of not taking responsibility for your own actions
Isn’t that 28th Amendment…?
A child’s given a gun at 11 years old yet its the videogames fault. Bitch. Please.
Kinder Surprises are banned in the US,quote from wikipedia
“The imbedded non-nutritive objects in these confectionery products may pose a public health risk as the consumer may unknowingly choke on the object.”
Yet that same child can have a collection of rifles and people dont bat an eyelid.
So the moral of the story is that, if you are going to kill and rape your mother, be sure to own an XBOX and a copy of CoD first.. The lawyers will take care of the rest.